


Stupid and Triumphant

by fish_wifey



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: 'I guess we're dating now', Accidental kisses, Confusion, Didn't Know They Were Dating, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Kissing, M/M, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, PRESUMED one-sided, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Kissing, Practice Kissing, Sharing a Bath, Slow Burn, Texting, at one point one person thinks they're dating, coffee dates, cute dates, mature tags to be added later, study dates, the other person doesn't and still pines
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-02-17 02:59:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 30,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13067706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fish_wifey/pseuds/fish_wifey
Summary: It all started when Submer9ed asked him in chat:'Would you meet up maybe? I promise I'm not a creep.'Shibayama decides to take a leap of faith in his online raid-member buddy of the past year. Given the fact that he has to stop raiding as he wants to dedicate his next three years to volleyball, Shibayama ends of having contact with the usual silent party member who also lives in Japan.But Kuguri turns out to be super handsome, kind, and really fun to be around with. Troubles brewing for Shibayama's tiny heart; he develops a crush on his new friend.~Kuguri couldn't have known that meeting up with Shibayama would start a roller coaster of emotions. They're so different in looks but have so many things in common.And he feels his heart blooming being near Shibayama.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It took me over a year to even publish the first chapter but lord bless, we're getting there.
> 
> ANYWAY. I've had this fic since june 2016 and wrote on it on/off 8D It's very precious to me. Sel has always been a huge inspirations with her art and I'm only so invested into kugushiba because of her!
> 
> Sel, happy holidays ;v; I know its only one chapter for now but I hope to update it soon and be more frequent writing it now that its up for everyone to see TuT
> 
> Please enjoy, everyone!

Yuuki presses his lips together. His mother always said he should go through with the things he promises or agrees to, but as time passes by he’s not so sure anymore. They decided last weekend to do this. In the sharp light of today’s reality, it should only be natural to feel a little awkward. Waiting at the entrance of the mall they agreed to meet up, it’s like he walked fresh out of an anime. On the way here, Yuuki and his brothers passed rows of cherry trees at the end of their bloom, and a lot of the falling petals had ended up on top of Yuuki. To make matters worse, after he picked them off his person, Yuuki had tried to send his brothers Norio and Hotoka to wait inside. His little brother Hotoka had thrown the handfuls of gathered petals over Yuuki. 

Standing in a half-moon circle of pink, Yuuki wishes a strong eastern wind would blow them away. There are other people too, and he can’t really move from his place or find a better spot that doesn’t look like he’s just been summoned by the cherry trees. Sighing, Yuuki’s fingers go to his hair-parting, making unruly bangs leave his forehead. He checks again that the sleeves of his zipper vest are rolled up, to uncover his wrist. He hopes that the World of Warcraft wristband is easy to see. His brother had bought him a white one with red lettering, a total hint to the libero colours of the Nekoma libero Yuuki aspires to be. 

Norio had always let him use the family pc the most and monitored the online activity of his two little brothers. He had wanted Yuuki to make friends in junior high, and sort of gave up when Yuuki raved on about World of Warcraft friends he had all around the planet. When Yuuki had been dressed and ready to go, he had hurried his older brother out of the house to catch two trains earlier, _’Just in case!’_. Hotoka, having nothing better to do, ran along, making fun of Yuuki’s nervous state every step of the way. He told his brothers to sit at a small café inside, and Norio promised to not check on him until 10 minutes after. 

Swinging sideways from leg to leg, Yuuki plays with the zipper of his vest. The temptation to check his phone every odd minute had to be stalled, and the zipper was close by for his fidgeting. Across the street he saw a small clock, which he throws shifty glances every half minute. Simply checking to make sure that Submerged wasn’t late.

_Kuguri. Kuguri is his name. I shouldn’t say Submerged. That would be so stupid if I would say that out loud._ Yuuki bites his bottom lip, his eyes shifting from stranger to stranger as they pass the mall’s entrance or run inside, checking their wrists for a sign. No one looks like the quiet friend he made online, who was his age.

It’s his first time meeting someone he met on the internet. For 1 ½ years, Yuuki had been known as MountainCat1016, or MC to his raid group. The Americans would say Mac instead of eMCee. He loved being a healer in games, and although he had been a novice for the longest time, once he found a group, he really got hooked on playing WoW. They met about twice a week to play online for a few hours. His parents had told him to give up on it if he wanted to also pursue volleyball seriously. 

Before the start of high school, Yuuki had his last raid and said goodbye to the round of international friends.

A couple of moments before he would have the quit the game, Submer9ed talked. It was a true rarity in all the time they played together. He had known that the other person whose actual name was Kuguri, was Japanese and a minor like him. It had been normal not to say too much in their mother tongue among their raid members, and they usually kept it to textual chat anyway. Kuguri had only ever explained how the 9 came in the name, a nod to his birth-date. And that he lived in Japan. 17 months, and he gave away only so little information about himself… But that evening, Kuguri had said he’d miss Yuuki, and that he also lived in Tokyo. _’Would you like to meet up maybe? I promise I’m not a creep.’_

On top of all, he plays volleyball. Yuuki had mentioned it online a few times, and also gave it as a reason that he had to quit WoW. 

It took time to convince his parents and older brother to let him meet up with a total stranger, but Kuguri had been right; if they both had relatives coming along, it should be safe. _‘I swear I’m also 16. Definitely not an old dirty creep.’_ The agreement was to wait for school to start and get used to their new class and surroundings, then meet up in the second weekend after.

Two girls beside Yuuki, waiting for their third female friend, start giggling. When Yuuki looks up from them, back to the pavement, and back to where their eyes are staring, he sees a tall boy coming his way. His hair’s wild, to put it mildly. Apart from the flaming colour, it sticks out upwards and to odd places. The girls giggles die away as they comment on the boy’s fashion sense. Yuuki feels watched even though they weren’t talking about him, and scratches the back of his neck. He was from Tokyo, but his parents wanted to live in the suburbs instead of the buzzing city. And Yuuki never had a wish to style himself in the fashions of the metropole. 

“Uhm, sorry? Hi.”

Blinking up, Yuuki notices three things at once: the boy with the wild fiery hair stands right in front of him. The girls have met up with their third friend, and the trio stares at the boy, too. Lastly, Kuguri shows off his WoW wristband, then pointing at the same in a different colour dangling around Yuuki’s wrist. His mind elsewhere, Yuuki lifts up his own hand by way of greeting. Kuguri is quick to bump it, which wasn’t Yuuki’s intention and who fails to react and just passively takes it.

Kuguri had said he played volleyball, but they had switched the subject of interest towards Yuuki and how he plays libero because of his size. He never asked how tall Kuguri was, and it now came as a total surprise. When he notices his staring might be rude, Yuuki gasps, and instantly bows in greeting.

“Ah, I’m so sorry! My head was totally elsewhere just now.” He stands up straight, both glad and afraid that Kuguri doesn’t look bemused. “I’m Shibayama!”

“...Yes, I gathered as much. Shibayama Yuki?”

“Ah, it’s Yuuki! Long vowel…” Yuuki laughs, a little nervous. He has no idea what to do with his hands. His gut feels odd, as the nervous stream from before whirls and whips up an entire different feeling. “And you’re Kuguri Nao, right!? I kept thinking ‘Ieyasu’ the entire week.” 

Kuguri nods, his lips curving a little. 

“I haven’t been called Nao in a while…”

“Ah-ah! Sorry, I didn’t want to presume- Kuguri-kun is fine, isn’t it!? So so sorry.” Yuuki felt like a complete idiot. He kept apologizing long after they entered the mall, and even when Kuguri told him it’s fine and he shouldn’t apologize. When Yuuki passes his brothers, he gives them the ‘OK’ sign they figured to do if the the first meeting went alright, then noticed that Kuguri had no one trailing him.

Kuguri looks at the two people who are definitely his brothers, and then laughs.

“Damn, my cousin- you see the one in the hat and the sunglasses? Seems he had the same idea as your… brothers, right? Yeah. I’m sorry, he looks really conspicuous. I’ll text him real quick.” Kuguri waves at someone sitting behind Norio and Hotoka, then whips out his smartphone and opens the LINE app. He speaks as he talks “My cousin lives in Yamagata and had to come here for a month because of work. He’s pissed having to babysit me. He’s never been a fan of games. Probably because he sucks at them. His reaction time is way low and he doesn’t like when too many things go on all at once.”

Yuuki laughs. Kuguri doesn’t seem the kind to need help, at all. He’s tall, and very handsome. And he looks ridiculously cool. Yuuki shrinks on himself as they walk towards the escalator. He’s more the nerd type himself, and more befitting the image of someone who plays online games a lot…

“So is your family from Yamagata as well?” Yuuki asks on the escalator, elated that Kuguri seems at ease and talks a lot. He’s been so quiet the entire time they raided together, and only spoke up after their last session. Since then they’ve been chatting online for a while, and exchanged LINE, but never called. Kuguri never took long for replies, but Yuuki felt like a bother when he was texting too much. 

“Partly. My dad’s side all live there. My mom’s from the border of the Tokyo prefecture, but moved to the city for her studies. It’s how she met my dad. They decided to live her and have me. Well.” Kuguri looks away when they’re on the next floor, and walks towards a store without looking at Yuuki. The latter follows just fine, fully understanding he might have been prying. 

“Hmm, I see. My family all lives in the suburban places of Tokyo. Seriously everyone is at the border.” He laughs, his fingers itching. Yuuki tries hard not to wipe his hands at his clothes. It’s not as if he’s nervous anymore, but a whole other feeling has come over him. Focusing on Kuguri (in another way than what his mind is doing), he glances up to the store they’re about to enter. Quite fashionable place. Yuuki remembers Kuguri mentioning wanting to come here to look for pants, as they might have the length size he needs. 

Yuuki’s never asked which school Kuguri was about to go to, but he’s been asking so many questions already in person that he feels it’s an improper moment. Instead, he lets Kuguri looks around in ease. It’s shocking to be asked for opinions, and Yuuki quickly goes for the darker choices of jeans.

Afterwards they head upstairs to the arcades. Yuuki beams, ready to play a few games against his new friend. He ignores his phone for a while when they’re inside, too busy having fun and too focused not to stare at Kuguri’s handsome profile too often. 

“Say, Shibayama. Did you ever try those on hard?” 

“O-on what now!?” Yuuki’s voice pitch peaks, and he quickly looks to where Kuguri is pointing at. Heart skipping, Yuuki’s returns a broad smile. 

“You want to play taiko against me? I’m good at those, you know.” Yuuki starts off towards the drums, and Kuguri catches up easy. They stand side by side in line. “It’s the only game I’m better at than my brothers, at least. They’re more racer types. It’s depressing when your little brother beats you at every Mario kart road…” 

Kuguri chuckles, then steps forward when the line moves. He’s digging in his pockets for change, but Yuuki’s faster finding his and giving Kuguri a coin. Kuguri’s confused stare is rather cute as he looks at the coin, lying in the palm of his hand. It distracts Yuuki, eyes enthralled by the larger sized hands. He wonders how warm they would be to hold… Then he’s brought into the here and now again, when Kuguri speaks up. “Uh, thanks…”

Yuuki grins, wiping away any mischievous thoughts inside his head. _‘Don’t, Yuuki. Don’t don’t don’t-_ and the two of them talk about favourite Mario kart maps, and that they should play that too, sometime. When it is their turn to hit the drums, Yuuki defeats Kuguri 2 times to 1. 

“Alright, I give up. Wanna eat crepes? Loser’s treat.” Kuguri strolls towards the food court on the same level, and won’t take no for an answer. 

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

Naoyasu is forever conscious of his body. He takes up a lot more space than Shibayama, who seems practical and compact next to him. He had seem nervous at a few moments though, and so Naoyasu decides to hold himself back a little. Maybe it’s because he’s a lot taller than Shibayama, and it could be intimidating. But surely Shibayama would be used to tall players, as he plays volleyball. Kuguri doesn’t want to ask about it though. It might be rude.

Taking care to make his long legs to be out of the way and non-threatening as they sit to eat, Kuguri stares ahead when he takes a bite out of his crepe. Next to him, Shibayama hums in happiness with every bite, which strangely affects the ways of Naoyasu’s beating heart. He tries not to blink as often as he does when he feels this odd sensation in the pit of his stomach, and ignores how his nose and feet itch.

He has a weakness for cute guys. Never one to allow himself thinking of a type, Naoyasu can’t help but like Shibayama on the first meeting. The bubbly excitement catches onto him. They had agreed beforehand to see how meeting in real life goes, but quickly had to notify their relatives of the extended time they wanted to hang out together. Shibayama mentioned a trip to TAG for pens and a pencil case, and Naoyasu also needed new pencils.

The worst thing is how Shibayama is the exact opposite of himself in so many things already, and Naoyasu couldn’t help but be attracted to that. Even online, Shibayama had been more talkative in chat and super helpful as a healer. Naoyasu had wanted to talk to him more and interact elsewhere than during raids. He never found the time or courage, until the threat of Shibayama, back then MountainCat1016, leaving the group came upon him. Anxiety was a foreign concept to Naoyasu, and he had blended in his new class and among the club just fine. 

Yet sitting next to Shibayama and eating sweet crepes gave his spine a chill and he couldn’t keep his feet still. Kuguri hunches forward a little, maybe weighed down by guilt. He had wished for the gods to not let him find anyone good-looking in his new team at Nohebi, but of course they paid him back thrice by sending Shibayama.

He’s never been one to develop crushes fast, but this one had been a long time coming. Seeing Shibayama for real and interacting with him without a pc or phone as a medium has flipped every switch. He didn’t want this day to end. Thank god he suggested a mall and they could find places to hang out at for as long as their parents had allowed them to be away.

They go to TAG after. Naoyasu has no problems keeping track of Shibayama, who seems to be quite into stationery goods. 

Naoyasu drifts back to Shibayama when he stands still for some time. There’s no need to hurry, but Naoyasu’s eyes turn to the object in Shibayama’s hand; it’s a rather colourful pencil case, rectangular and made of tin. It’s adorned with an abundance of red. Ripped out of contemplation, Shibayama notices Naoyasu staring and rubs the back of his neck.

“It does look a bit childish, don’t you think?”

Not liking the sound in Shibayama’s voice, Naoyasu steps forward, looking at the bright red and white colours, the little black cats jumping and flailing about. 

“It’s colourful, yeah, but not super flamboyant.” Wondering why of all the words in his vocabulary, he had to use that specific word, Naoyasu takes the tin case from Shibayama’s hands. The latter looks sad and indecisive, things Naoyasu won’t stand for. Sharing a basket, Naoyasu puts it on Shibayama’s side. “Just buy it. It looks and fits-” _Your sweetness and bubbliness. Yeah, I should absolutely say that…_ “It fits your theme.”

They both look into the basket. Shibayama’s side has washi tape and notebooks, all with kittens or one large, lazy cat. At last, Shibayama gives him a beaming smile. Naoyasu feels at once shined on, but he turns around before Shibayama can have second thoughts. 

They leave with each a bag full of highlighters, pencils, washi tape, notebooks, and Shibayama’s pencil case.. Shibayama bought two tapes with cats on it, and explains in full length how they have a black household cat. 

“Selena is a laid-back type like you, but she always comes to cheer me up if I have a bad day.” Shibayama smiles, showing Naoyasu pictures on his phone of the black cat in various places and positions. He’s glad Shibayama thinks he’s cool, or ‘laid-back’, but doesn’t like to hear him having bad days… even if it's normal to have those. Naoyasu withholds himself from prying into Shibayama’s business and he bends low to look at the cat. He answers Shibayama’s questions of having animals at home -he doesn’t-, and which one he would like.

“All my neighbors always had dogs and let me pet them. They’re really kind. I also like cats,” Naoyasu looks at Shibayama, but glances away when the other looks back. “A friend of mine has a turtle, which is cute too, I guess. What I would like… I think a snake? They’re really cool.”

Shibayama’s reaction is a little taken aback, which Naoyasu is used too. Snakes are dangerous animals after all, and not normal household pets to caress or to play with. He quickly tells Shibayama how he’d choose a cat for sure, given they’re easy-going and low-maintenance. Mostly.

“They can be quite a handful.” Shibayama laughs as he steps on the escalator, turning towards Naoyasu. It feels awkward, giving that they’re going down and he looks gigantic now. He sidesteps Shibayama and comes to stand in front of him.

Wrong call. Shibayama’s face is closer to eye-level now, and in such a perfect position to-

“Aaaah, my big brother’s calling. Uh, he asks about lunch… Hang on a sec.” Shibayama turns away and looks over the rail, waving as his brothers. He tells them he just ate, and that Naoyasu and he are still going places. He then makes faces, and hangs up.

“They’re saying they want to eat at the café and that I should join them.” Shibayama looks down, and the sadness displayed tugs at Naoyasu’s heart. The feeling’s mutual.

“We can join them, if you want. I’ll make my cousin take off the stupid hat and glasses. We can- I mean if you want- still.” 

“Really!? Yes, let’s do that.” Shibayama jumps off the escalator early and flies off, leaving Naoyasu to make use of his longer legs and step to. He doesn’t like being made unable to articulate his thoughts properly, and wonders if it's a problem of not speaking that much usually. Or it’s Shibayama’s charm, overwhelming him. Like a big, warm, refreshing wave crashing into him. Making him lose his feet and head.

_’Shit.’_

Glad when he gets to sit down and ridicule his cousin’s outfit, Naoyasu walks over to where Shibayama rejoins his brothers. They look very alike, apart from the fact that they haircuts are quite different. Before this good day, Naoyasu would have thought that middle hair parting was meant for earnest business people, and uncool nerds. On Shibayama, he couldn’t help but find it befitting and cute.

“What do you mean, ‘I just ate?’, huh, Nao-kun?” His cousin asks as he follows behind, bummed out. “We were supposed to eat together.”

“No we weren’t,” Naoyasu mumbles towards him, not wanting to make a scene in front of Shibayama’s family. He glances at the middle Shibayama brother in a silent apology. “Auntie said you should treat me if I am hungry. And I am not, so you don’t have to.”

“It’s rude to watch other people eat!” His cousin continues, and Shibayama quickly gets up to defuse the tension.

“I’ll get us milkshakes! It’s something,” Shibayama compromises, and then heads off with his older brother, leaving Naoyasu alone with his fuming cousin (who hasn’t made up yet what he’s in the mood for) and the youngest Shibayama sibling.

“Does your school allow you to have your hair like that?” He ask innocently, and Naoyasu has to restrain himself from running his fingers through his hair.

“I don’t know yet. I haven’t gotten into trouble first two weeks at school. And it’s just bed-hair, after all…”

Before he has to answer more questions, Naoyasu’s phone buzzes. It’s a message of Shibayama, a sticker displaying a bear in distress. 

**Shibayama: What flavour do you like!? I forgot to ask (๑ ˊ͈ ᐞ ˋ͈ );;**

‘Anything sweet will do. No banana.’ Naoyasu replies quickly, then kicks his cousin’s shin. “It’ll be impolite to keep the others waiting, and then to have to wait for you to finish lunch.”

Watching his raging cousin leave, Naoyasu is glad to turn his glance towards the counter were Shibayama is ordering. The oldest Shibayama is glancing at him, as if to make sure Naoyasu doesn’t steal off with the youngest brother while they’re gone. The questioning about Naoyasu’s style continue, but he doesn’t mind the inquisitive side of this family. Better than his aunt, whose first question is always ‘And, do you have a girlfriend?’

Naoyasu knew quite surely at the end of junior high that he wouldn’t require a girlfriend anytime soon. A boyfriend, however-

“Here, I have vanilla and chocolate. If you don’t like one, you can take mine!” Shibayama beams, first putting the chocolate one in front of Naoyasu. His older brother carries a plate of junk food, and the youngest brother goes straight for the chicken nuggets. Naoyasu turns to see what is keeping his cousin, and grumbles. 

“You can start without him…” He tried to tell the three brothers. The youngest already has a mouth full, while the oldest berates him by hitting the back of his head.

“There you go,” the oldest brother says, smiling towards Naoyasu with a lack of the previous shown distrust. “Don’t worry about that. Our parents have raised us right, and we’ll wait. Won’t we, Hotoka? Now, Kuguri-kun it was? Tell us about yourself. Do you have a girlfriend?”

“Norio,” Shibayama hisses, showing a face Naoyasu hasn’t seen on him all day. Quite annoyed. Naoyasu cannot deny that it kinda turns him on, but doesn’t think too much about it. He wonders what everyone’s obsession is with girlfriends… At least Shibayama hasn’t inquired about it, although he’s asked so many other questions. 

“Uh, what would you like to know? And uhm, no, I don’t have anyone as of now.” Naoyasu doesn’t dare to give even a slight glance towards Shibayama, given it’s only the first time they’ve met. No need to try and be subtle about hinting anything, as it was way too early for that kind of thing. Naoyasu luckily doesn’t have to answer to the older sibling as his cousin finally deigns to appear with a tray of food, and everyone can finally eat.

That is, everyone except him and Shibayama. Holding the cold milkshakes, Naoyasu is pleasantly surprised to feel Shibayama’s knee against his. 

“We should count ourselves lucky that this didn’t become a meeting between the Horde and the Alliance.”

The giggle accompanies with a shake of his shoulders, and Naoyasu cannot help but close his eyes as mirth takes over his entire torso. He knocks his knee back at Shibayama’s, whose is looked at by everyone around the table who doesn’t play WoW.

“Ugh, seriously, nerd?” The youngest sibling, Hotoka he was called, groans before stuffing his face with a handful of fries. 

Naoyasu indulges into his milkshake, and can somewhat manage not to ask for the offered change to taste Shibayama’s. Indirect kisses have to be a thing for yet another time. Naoyasu is quite sure he and Shibayama will manage to meet again more often, after the success of this first half of the day. 

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

Yuuki never understood how it his older brother could spend hours on the phone. Either texting, or calling, or doing both back to back until he went to sleep. It had driven Yuuki insane, right to the point where he’d take Norio’s phone and hide it. But reaching the tender age of 16 only a few months ago, it all became clear to him.

It was hard not to type messages to Kuguri. During school, at dinner, when he should be studying in his room, lying in his bed at night. The topics were diverse, and some half hour long sessions would be about simple school stuff. For volleyball related things, they called. Yuuki hadn’t been afraid to initiate contact, and learned that Kuguri liked it better that way. In this sense, the fright to be a bother to him disappeared. 

His younger brother would make jokes about Yuuki’s red ears, but if you were talking to someone over an hour over the phone and relaying fun occurrences at practice, red ears were hard to avoid. It was also easier for Yuuki to lie to himself, to say it out loud ‘It’s because we were talking for a long time’, rolls better of the tongue than ‘well, I like him.’

Because Yuuki had dug himself a grave. After meeting Kuguri, he was all Yuuki would think of when he had a moment to spare and not having to concentrate on anything. And even if he should be reading a book or passing balls, his thoughts went to the tall, slender, handsome boy. Making him laugh at stupid nerd jokes had been one of the many highlights of their first meeting. Grateful he doesn’t babble on the phone or messes up texts, Yuuki sighs to himself in the mirror in the morning when he gets ready for class. They don’t have practice this morning, and Yuuki’s hand itch for his phone, to read Kuguri’s last message again. 

_G’night, Shibayama._

Eyes low, Yuuki doesn’t look at his blushing face, and acts as if the redness on his cheeks comes from the cold water he splashed across a few seconds ago. He doesn’t try to splash more, to get those words on his phone out of his system. Unable to say anything as he woke up, Yuuki has just stared at the message, then went to do his morning routine.

The simple words kept him warm all day.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Both boys feel distractions from training that lead to their phones and the messages that are sent or that are awaited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also please note that there's a minor mention of daimika. Daishou thinks of her and it's not too intrusive to the fic I hope! (basically a mention he has a girlfriend and that he understands what Kuguri might be going through?)

Put that away, we’re heading out,” Hiroo breathes out next to Naoyasu, looking at his phone. “Hmmm, you’re waiting for a text?”

“No,” Naoyasu pushes the fib through his lips, then continues to change. He hadn’t expected to be allowed inside the club room this early, but his length, jumps and game sense have somehow gotten him in the coach’s eye. By this extension he also found himself in the scrutiny of his senpais who were regulars on the team already. After he put the Nohebi training shirt over his head, Naoyasu grabs his bag and puts his phone inside, quick to follow Hiroo out of the room. 

“You’ve been distracted,” Hiroo states as if he knew all about it. “It doesn’t matter as long as it doesn’t happen in a match or during practice.”

“I’m fine.” Naoyasu manages another white lie to keep his upperclassman from worrying. Up ahead he spots the team captain talking to their ace. It would be bad if either Daishou or Numai would get wind of what went on in Naoyasu’s mind at the present. Daishou wasn’t exactly a strict senpai, but a teasing one. Numai had taken an interest, and positively a liking to Naoyasu’s game play, and bothered him a lot with techniques and power. Naoyasu didn’t mind learning from either of them, as long as they would keep out of his private business.

He also didn’t need anyone catching on about his sexuality. There had been questions from upperclassmen to their underclassmen if they had girlfriends or other priorities, and the regulars had made fun of their captain who retaliated in harsh tones. Pokerfacing his way through middle school, where Naoyasu had found out he didn’t like girls in the least but found guys more attractive to the eye, Naoyasu has locked his secret away. There weren’t many people who knew, and he could count them on one hand. 

Having enough problems _liking_ someone from another team, Naoyasu pries his overthinking head away from not having received any kind of message from him thus far the day went. It hasn’t been Naoyasu style to fidget about that sort of thing, but he’s also never had a crush like this before. Shibayama Yuuki was really nice, cute, and fun to talk to. They shared a lot of interests together, and talking with him took no effort. Naoyasu has hated phone calls, until it was Shibayama on the other end, chatting away about his day, inquiring about Naoyasu’s. A genuine interest, and not just a polite conversation or small talk.

Naoyasu sighs as he changes into his volleyball shoes, then joins in with Hiroo as he enters the gym. He had no time to fuss over it anymore, or Hiroo’s suspicion would return like a spotlight on him.

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

“Shibayama-kun, are you ready?” Inuoka asks, standing at class 1’s doorway. It was his own classroom, but as most of Inuoka’s classmates had other club activities or club rooms to go to, they were able to change in here. Yuuki, actually dressed and perfect to go, was looking up from his phone. A mostly finished message could be seen displayed from his side of the conversation, his thumbs hovering over the choice of kaomoji to give it its final touch. 

“Yeah, coming!” Yuuki replies, randomly chooses a cute kaomoji with round hands, then sends his LINE text to Kuguri. It had taken him all day to actually say anything at all, and in the end it was a lame ‘Do your best at club practice! I’m off too, now.’

Putting his phone away in his bag, and his bag over his shoulder, Yuuki sprints after Inuoka. They had become friends right off the bat, and Inuoka, despite his height, was easy to talk to and had a sunny disposition. The two of them were also favoured by their second year senpai, Yamamoto, who called them out outside of the main school building.

“About freaking time! C’mon Inuoka, we’re supposed to do block follows. Hard to do without a blocker, isn’t it!?” Yamamoto grins as they approach him in haste. He cannot put his arm around Inuoka’s shoulders, like he’d do with people the same height or smaller than him, but he clasps his hand over it. “You’re feeling well? I’m gonna block past you all the time, today!” 

“Tora-senpai, that wouldn’t be a good block-follow practice, though.” Inuoka laughs, bowing his head in respect. “I will block you with my own power, I promise!”

“Mighty words for a first year.” Yamamoto smirks, not minding the challenge. He then turns to Yuuki. “And you! Everyone is gonna look at your connecting abilities, so be sure to show ‘em! Just being a libero won’t guarantee you a spot on the team if there’s other people better at receiving, y’know!?”

Yuuki smiles as he nods. “I know. In any case, I am in no state to surpass Yaku-san at this point.” 

“Pfft, of course not. You’re exactly two years too early for that. But you can still be on the bench if you’re good enough, and become a hero if anything were to happen to Yaku-san! Obviously nothing will happen to him, but you never know. It’d be scary though, not having Yaku-san guarding my ass.”

“Guarding your what now!?” Yaku, his head rounding a corner before Kai and Kenma pass him by, looks livid. Yuuki is glad Inuoka is tall and wide, and that he can hide behind him. He’s never been on Yaku’s bad side before, and he’d like to keep it that way. Yamamoto’s mouth speaks quick to defuse the tension. 

“I mean, without you behind me, I wouldn’t be able to be reckless,” Yamamoto explains, nonetheless shrinking when Yaku comes closer. 

“How about you’re not being reckless in the first place…” Kozume complains, passing the three of them. He nods at Inuoka and Yuuki, then walks slowly towards the gym doors. Feeling safer at the calm presence, Yuuki trails after the senpai he thought would be an equally bad hoodlum character as Yamamoto. But both have been kind to him and gave him directions, their blond hair just something that scared Yuuki at first glance. Happy he came to Nekoma, he talks cheery to Inuoka, until the training starts.

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

“Okay, individual training now commences. I shall walk back and forth the courts and the gyms, so make sure to be loud if you need me!” Coach Oomizu’s voice booms towards the masses of players, and a lot of them return it. Standing towards the back, Naoyasu watches the majority shuffling out of the main gym they use for practice. 

The scattering makes it less easy for Naoyasu to spot a threat when it comes for him. Without noticing, he has his captain, Daishou Suguru standing in front of him. An even face, with restless, ever calculating eyes. They’re slits now, pupils training on Naoyasu’s face. Just as bad is the figure behind him, their ace Numai Kazuma. Naoyasu hadn’t been able to read Numai’s intentions for him.

"Hey, Kuguri. Listen, Numai and are going to practice jump serves on the left court today,” Daishou says, and Naoyasu sees one of the libero’s heading to that direction. “You’re free to join, if you want. You had a lot of misses today, and some of the the net-ins barely made it. It’s cool as long we yell ‘out’ during matches, but it’s better to be sure, right?”

Naoyasu nods, his hand nervously wiping at his neck. He’s tired and had wanted to go straight home for a hot bath and a good meal. The last few days he’s been able to sneak out with most of the others, but it seems like today, Daishou had a mission to keep him.

“Uh, I guess I could do it tomorrow,” Naoyasu suggest and his eyes shift to Numai who stalks off with a ‘hmph’, back to Daishou.

“Alright, then… Listen, you have high chances to make it on the team as a regular. But you have to show our coach more zeal about doing things, understand? He’s not going to notice players who are as silent as you are.” Daishou makes a comparison to Seguro and Numai, but Naoyasu doesn’t get it, if he’s honest. Those two are close in personalities, and Naoyasu differs from them a lot. 

“Of course.” Naoyasu wonders if merely agreeing would help his case at all. Daishou’s face’s changes for the worse, before he shakes his head and goes after Numai, waving his goodbye to Naoyasu. Alone at last, Naoyasu thinks about today, and how the praises have been raining down on him, mostly for spikes. Daishou has a point, though, as the coach wouldn’t acknowledge him without Naoyasu opening his mouth more often. 

Contemplating how he can show more ‘zeal’ and sell it, Naoyasu rummages through his bag which he left near the entrance. In search of a snack that would take his tired bones home, he comes across his phone, and its light flickering; he’s gotten a message. Blinking once, Naoyasu chances it to read it right away, his heart beating up in his throat. For a moment, he just stares at the words on the display. It takes him some time to take it all in, while his senpai start on their serves. Putting his phone back, Naoyasu locates the protein bar. This item also gets a stare treatment, before Naoyasu puts it back unopened.

Watching Daishou and Numai, the text he just read floats through his head. Naoyasu can hear Shibayama’s encouragement in that bubbly sweet voice. It makes Naoyasu’s feet start off in the direction of where his senpai stand behind the line near the ball basket, and takes a volleyball for himself from their basket, joining their individual training unit.

“Now that’s rare.” Numai’s glare turns out to be a surprised look which trails after Naoyasu, who acts aloof and as if he doesn’t see it. He stands a little bit further off for more room, and to not let them think that he’s trying to suck up to them. Naoyasu pays his senpai who have paused to watch him no mind, and readies his jump serve. He thinks he can do at least ten.

Given that he thinks of Shibayama with each and every missed serve, has him do two more. And he cannot help but feel elated thinking how Shibayama would cheer for him for all the net-in’s he’s scoring, too. After a while, Daishou gives him pointers, and then their coach tells them to wrap it up. Naoyasu blinks up to the clock, finding that he stayed for practice an hour longer, and not feeling any hunger at all for the extra bit. Letting Numai lock him within his arms, he’s dragged back to his bag, and Numai hands him an extra protein bar and sports drink out of his own bag. 

“Damn, you can really do it if you try huh!?” Numai barks his laughter, and Naoyasu cannot talk back to him. Munching on his snacks, he types back a reply to Shibayama.

‘Practice was good. My jump serves need a lot of polishing, though. How was your day?’

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

Yuuki never knew why, but he had been more terrified of the younger coach than the older one. Coach Naoi had a stern voice, stoic eyes, and his face would become more like marbled stone if someone messed up the receive (and at Nekoma, you had to repeat at least five more until you were done…) He had just finished announcing the away games in Miyagi and a special invite for a practice match against Karasuno’s volleyball club. Yuuki likes the name ‘Karasu’ and wonders what kind of people would be on that team.

Nerves return to him however, as Naoi switches to another piece of paper. Most of the people around Yuuki stiffen, except those who have been regulars on this team longer. Today, after two intense weeks of training, the official roster is being made known, and it’s also that select group that will be allowed to go to Miyagi. 

Starting with the third years and second years, Yuuki hears no surprises there. It’s the announcement of which first years will make the team of which he’s nervous. He hopes of course that Inuoka can make it, but it’s basically a given that one of the tallest members in the club and a good blocker should be on the team. Throat thick with worry, Yuuki can only hope that a small first year libero, may have the chance- 

“Number 7, Inuoka Sou, middle blocker.”

“Yes! Thank you!” Inuoka yells out, his arms straight against his body. He’s less stiff going forward, and Yuuki claps for him, but not so that anyone can hear or see. The available spots dwindle. 

“Number 12, Shibayama Yuuki, libero.” 

At the moment, Yuuki has given up, looking at his feet. Maybe, after the summer- then a hand touches upon his shoulder. 

“Shibayama-kun, go forward!” 

“Eh?” He doesn’t know why he’s pushed or stared upon. Through a gap he sees Naoi with a white shirt and red accents, the libero shirt of Nekoma, and he’s looking at him. Only then the words he said register, and Yuuki stammers a loud “Yes!” before walking towards the team. The team he’s in now. The Nekoma regulars team. He has the shirt in his hand, the same one Yaku wears, the same one he has wanted even before coming to this school. 

Head spinning, he’s gathered in Inuoka’s arms, and Yamamoto is quick to ruffle Yuuki’s hair. Yaku looks over his shoulder, a simple, manly nod of acknowledgement. Yuuki feels his heart become feather light, and he can’t even feel his toes. He looks at the other side, and the then towards the team shirt he’s now a proud owner of.

Naoi says another couple of things for those that stay here during the away games, and encourages them to do well in the absence of the main coaches. It’s kind of disrespectful, but Yuuki listens with only one ear. He really wants to tell Kuguri about this. The excitement rises in his throat, now empty of any doubt or fear. Naoi breaks up the new regular team in even numbers to practice, rotate, and become accustomed to one another. 

Inuoka and Yuuki are being taken aside by their head coach, Nekomata. 

“Well done, well done! You two have been outstanding in the last weeks, and making the team is an accomplishment, truly. But it doesn’t end here. Practice will become harder here on out. Remember that you now carry the team, as well as those who aren’t on the court with you. Understood?”

“Yes, sir!” They both proclaim, and the old coach chuckles. His eyes open a slit to look at them.

“Inuoka, prepare to be in most of the matches, full sets. You’ll be playing against Karasuno, and I expect great things from you. Shibayama, be ready to be switched in at any moment. I cannot take Yaku out to often as he is our main libero and has tremendous skill, but you’re not to live up to that. Create your own path.” Nekomata smiles at both of them, then dismisses them to join in their practice teams. 

“Can you believe it, we’re going on a training camp so soon! And it’s really exclusive,” Inuoka says in all excitement, his voice pitch rising. His happiness mirrors on Yuuki’s own face, and they high ten each other before going towards separate court sides. Yuuki automatically joins the side Yaku isn’t on, and greets his team members with pride.

He has to text Kuguri right away after cleaning.

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

For a moment, Naoyasu stands still. He made sure he’s out of the way of other commuters, but he doesn’t trusts his legs right now. Looking up, he laments the fact that the city is filled with neon lights, disrupting the natural occurrence of the stars. At least if he could see them… He’d be able to think of a cheesy line, how they all lived under the same stars, anyway.

Exhaling through his nose, he closes his eyes, waiting for a breeze to cool his head. As it flows through his unsteady and wayward locks, he feels the tranquility return to him. Hands in his pockets, he takes out the one holding his phone, and thumbs the display back on from where he left off. It shows his LINE conversation with Shibayama, and the Nekoma shirt he received tonight. There had been a wall of text before that, which Naoyasu checks once more. Shibayama’s happiness shouldn’t leave such a bad taste in Naoyasu’s mouth, but he can’t help it. 

Sighing, Naoyasu heads home. Miyagi is too far away, really, and Shibayama mentioned he’s going to be away for at least half a week. It wasn’t as if they had any plans, but Naoyasu had hopes to show his spontaneous side, and get closer to Shibayama in the upcoming month. And god knows what brazen types await in the Tohoku region. 

At home, Naoyasu drops his bag at his bed, and his phone on top. He falls on top of it, leaving one foot on the floor, while tucking the under beneath his knee. In his bag is his own team shirt, and he was given the same number as Shibayama. He didn’t have the heart to tell Shibayama that he too made it on the team. His fingers couldn’t come up with the words. Plus, Oomizu had been clear that while Naoyasu showed the skill, he lacked the heart. Naoyasu was sure to be on the bench a lot, and that was nothing to brag about. Even as Shibayama faced the same issue as long as there was an older, more experienced libero, he didn’t seem to mind it one bit. 

It wasn’t just the negativity Naoyasu was sparing Shibayama from. He could have left that out and just celebrate with Shibayama their team shirts, but other issues rose up as well. Apart from the sadness Naoyasu has felt after reading that Shibayama would be gone for a little while, Naoyasu started to worry.

They never talked about their respective schools. 

Naoyasu had heard of Daishou’s venomous irritation whenever the name Nekoma dropped, but Naoyasu had been apart from it. When Daishou would speak ill of the ‘roosterhead’ who was captain of the ‘kitty-cat’ team, he didn’t feel a notion of rivalry. Now, the image on his screen shows clear which school, and which team Shibayama attends, and it messes him up a bit. Naoyasu had never seen them as rivals because they played volleyball in the same city, but knowing this bit of information changed at least how secretive he has to be. Nohebi has never been out of the top 8 in the preliminaries in the past years, and Daishou was more keen than ever to get them to nationals in his final third year. Nekoma hadn’t done bad themselves, and the possibility of facing each other became a frightening reality. 

It would be in Naoyasu’s interest to keep silent of having befriended an actual libero of the Nekoma team. Shibayama hasn’t bothered asking Naoyasu which school he attended, and he could only speculate that the dislike for Daishou and the Nohebi team would be equally strong over there. 

 

All that doesn’t take away how much Naoyasu would miss Shibayama. In away games far from home, he’d have less time to look at his phone or give Naoyasu his attention. After the matches, even if he’s just on the bench, he’d be too tired for lengthy evening conversations. 

‘I’ll miss you.’ A message Naoyasu types without thinking, then backspaces like a coward. Grumbling, he thinks long and hard how to reword it. If he’s taking more time than usual, Shibayama might go to bed before he’s able to read it. ‘Congrats, Shibayama. Well done. Have fun in the east. I’ll hold the front in Tokyo. Take care, and do your best.’

Re-reading it to make sure it’s not harsh but sincere, as well as caring without being too pining, Naoyasu approves of the message and hits Send. Shibayama is thankfully still awake, and sends him back a cute sticker of receiving thanks and one ‘Doing my best!’ bear, holding his thumbs up. Naoyasu smiles, fondness outgrowing his heart and filling his chest until it hurts. He feels better somewhat, making himself feel only happy for Shibayama’s success. 

‘We could celebrate once he’s back…’ Naoyasu tells himself, as they wish each other good night. And maybe he could make some sort of advances and check if Shibayama might be into guys, as well. Naoyasu has no hope in that department, but Hiroo said something about missed chances and possibilities. He might have a point.

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

“Hey so, I leave tomorrow morning. It’ll be 6 a.m. that they want us there, sooo, I have to hang up soon.” Yuuki worries his bottom lip, wishing he wouldn’t sound condescending or bragging… But Naoyasu hums his agreement over the phone, the static not irritating Yuuki’s ear.

_”I bet. Are you the type to sleep on the bus?”_

“Ah, I usually try avoiding it! I like watching the world pass by, especially when I’m traveling towards a place I haven’t been. But it does happen sometimes that I fall asleep without knowing. It’s bad though, because your body just slacks and positions itself weird. I’d rather avoid falling asleep, so I hope Inuoka is the same and we can talk a little or read together. Hey, have you ever visited Miyagi?” Yuuki fires out, sitting on his bed and glancing over towards his little pieces of luggage. He’s never been away without his parents or entire school year, and the exclusivity of the team outing made him giggly. Yuuki’s sure the butterflies in his stomach are just that, and not because of Kuguri speaking on the other side of the phone. 

_”My family’s been on a ski trip to Akita once. I was a child, but learned snowboarding there. Man, now you mentioned it, I really want to go back.”_

“Oh, wow, you can snowboard!? That’s so cool. I’ve never done something like that. And so far up north, too!” Admiration spreads through every joint, and Yuuki is again sure it has nothing to do with the sweet laugh Kuguri gives him and his over-delighted sounding voice. Or so Yuuki would like to believe, as his cheeks feel warmer when he touches his face.

_”I could totally teach you. It’s really fun, y’know. And the views you get to see are something else.”_

Yuuki shrinks in on himself, overwhelmed by this crazy feeling taking over. He puts one feet under the other, nervous and enchanted. “That would be so awesome. I don’t know how we get there, but I’d really like to try!”

_”Mhn, it’s a deal. I’m sure we can make it happen someday.”_

“Yeah,” Yuuki sighs, dreamily. His mind takes him to the white snowy mountains, cool clothings and huge sunglasses covering your face. He’d probably be unable to move in the layers of clothes, and he’d be a total klutz trying to coordinate a board below his feet. But surely Kuguri could do tricks and teach him properly how to glide over the fresh fallen snow.

He’s so far gone that he only hears an inkling of what Kuguri just said over the phone.

“Huh, what was that about ‘missing’? Sorry, I spaced out.” Yuuki sits up, apologetic even as Kuguri cannot see him. 

_”...I said you should go to bed, otherwise you might end up missing the bus tomorrow.”_ Kuguri murmurs, his voice further away than before. Yuuki looks at the time and gasps, exclaiming how he didn’t even notice how late it was. _”That’s probably while you spaced out and didn’t hear me. Well, goodnight then, Shibayama.”_

“Ah, yes, thank you~ and you too, Kuguri. Sleep tight!” Yuuki ends the call, then feels his face light up. He just said ‘sleep tight’, like a boyfriend would to his girlfriend!? He’s lost his senses, really. Kuguri doesn’t say anything on LINE anymore, so Yuuki gets ready for bed and turns off the lights.

It takes forever for his body to feel somewhat normal. This has happened every time he thinks of Kuguri.

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

His phone lies between his feet, dropped as soon as the call ended. Naoyasu has his hand in his face, groaning and cussing himself for not thinking, not filtering himself. He got away this time; his insane mumble of how he’d be missing Shibayama hasn’t been heard by the other.

“Or he did and let me play it safe. He’d be so kind…” Naoyasu thinks, hand in front of his mouth. That was one of the most uncool and rash things he’s ever done. “I’ve got to be more careful about this… we barely know each other.”

But Naoyasu toys with his phone, thinking how that’s not true. They’ve called each other at least once every night, and held up easy and nice chat conversations just fine. They shared their days, in a way Naoyasu’s parents would wish he’d talk openly at dinner and share things without being asked about it. Shibayama made everything so easy going for him, and his voice was so sweet and natural, so inviting and joyous.

“God, shit.” Naoyasu curses again, hanging his head between his knees. He feels like hurling himself in the nearest black hole, if there’d be one close by. His guts swirl with the emotions, and he might even consider just telling Shibayama how he feels. But it’s too soon. Whatever he knows about Shibayama, they never talked about relationships. Shibayama seems every innocent at least, another point which makes him all the more charming in Naoyasu’s eyes.

“I’m fucked…” Naoyasu groans, switching off the light. As he falls sideways on the bed, he instantly misses a presence within his grasps. Lonely, he hugs bunches of his blankets close to himself, wishing he could have had Shibayama here instead.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Shibayama is in Miyagi playing practice matches, Kuguri finds himself thinking about him all the time. It distracts him from playing volleyball himself, and his senpai notice.|
> 
> When Shibayama returns to Tokyo, Kuguri surprises him, but not all his plans come to fruition. Maybe he should listen to his senpai more...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooo some people who know me know that I am in fucking love with the Nohebi team. I really like writing them all! Daishou and Numai are among my favourites in the team and writing their captain/ace interactions concerning Kuguri (and Daishou's private love life uvu) were a real blast to me.
> 
> When I started writing this, I wanted to place Numai as a helping senpai who has his share of experiences and to be helpful to Kuguri. I don't know to what extent at this point I'll let him voice the amount of experiences... I just really wanted Kuguri to have someone to talk too, and Numai seems the best choice for it (o･ω･o) Again, minor mentions of Suguru and Mika being a couple given to the canon, but nothing too intrusive (๑˘︶˘๑) (and for those interested, I am writing sugumika fics also!)
> 
> I loooveeeee writing mutual pining and flustered boys (o´∀`o) Please enjoy!

Yuuki hit send before checking for spelling mistakes. He’s usually precise and careful, and wouldn’t find anything too odd in his writing. What he should have been more focused on in hindsight, was the length. He had to scroll a bit to read the entire message.

Arriving here in Miyagi and being on a training camp had taken a toll on him after all. Worrying, he sends a quick apology to Naoyasu, saying he doesn’t have to read or respond right away given the size. Around Yuuki, his senpai rise to freshen up in the baths as their morning routine allows, while someone like Yamamoto runs off for breakfast first, Fukunaga on his heels. Smiling, Yuuki agrees to wait with Inuoka so they can wash their faces first, then go to breakfast as well.

As he makes the choice to leave his phone here and not be distracted by it, a vibration goes off in his palm. Eager as usual, Yuuki opens the message.

‘Good to hear you made it safely. Have fun, and if you get to play, good luck.’ Kuguri’s messages come without too many kaomoji or LINE stickers, and he’s often short in his responses if he doesn’t have to explain things too detailed. Pressing his lips together, Yuuki hopes Kuguri isn’t mad at him. Maybe he’s overdone it being so overjoyed having made it on the team… or Kuguri was opposed to such lengthy messages? He always seems so cool and collected, not one who has an abundance of freely expressible emotions.

“Shibayama-kun, are you coming? The senpai just passed by,” Inuoka calls from the door, and Yuuki reacts swiftly. He has to think about how to thread around Kuguri in the future, and hopes to resolve whatever it is between them. If it isn’t just his hopeful thinking that something could ever _be_ between them...

After splashing water in his face, Yuuki uses his wet hands to ruffling through his bangs. Yuuki faces the mirror with renewed spirit, then quickly combs down his hair like the good kid he is. He cannot dwell too long on Kuguri, sadly. After all, Yuuki came here, chosen as one of the team, to support the them. One way or the other. He can only hope that he’ll get to play too, and that he can make Nekoma proud. If he’d somehow manage to befriend Kuguri better and have their interaction be even better… that would be amazing.

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

“Ku-gu-ri-kun. I said we’re going! Put that phone away already,” Seguro scolds him from the side, fists on his hips. Naoyasu hasn’t been done with his message, but hits ‘send’ quickly before Seguro becomes more pissed off. The second year middle blocker wasn’t just a year older or a few centimetres taller than Kuguri; he had a lot more ‘spirit’ as Oomizu would call it, and was in high favour by his teammates for blocking balls and being able to trash-talk the opponent while doing so.

Naoyasu had been busy to read the entire text that he had little time to change. When he finally did, he remembered he hadn’t answered yet, and that the infernal ‘read’ on Shibayama’s side might give him. Not noticing that most of the others had already left the club room, Naoyasu now looked around and finding him alone with Seguro. The phone out of sight, he puts his shirt in his shorts just like Seguro was prone to do, and heads outside.

“...Hiroo-san hasn’t been lyin’. You’re really distracted lately! What happened?”

Watching the ground as he moves forward, Naoyasu shakes his head. Seguro stops asking after a while, then sighs.

“Anyway, try and be a little more on your toes, okay!? We’ll start with serve practice today, and those who fail have to do penalties. Man, penalties suck, but one of them is trying to receive Hiroo-san’s float serves. Ten of ‘em! They’re hard, okay, so don’t fail.” Seguro laughs, clapping Naoyasu on his back. His anger flares up in an instant, but just as well disappears with a breeze. Naoyasu follows him inside, sighing.

He greets the rest of the gym at the same time Seguro does, then finds Daishou without wanting to. His captain looks as fresh and sleek as usual, not a hair out of place. Much different than Naoyasu, who rubs his head in apology for looking this messy. Even when he sleeps normally, his bed hair would be bad. Tossing and turning like he did last night, unable to find a good position, Naoyasu’s bed hair went out of control. The thick, coarse bangs were untameable, and Naoyasu has long since given up trying to fix it. His teachers here give him even more grief than his middle school. Maybe because he’s older now, and this being a prestigious academy.

Walking behind Seguro to line up for running, Naoyasu’s eyes run once more to find his captain. It was a known fact that Daishou has a girlfriend, and it was gossiped about how much experience he had. For the first time, Naoyasu thought about asking him for relationships advice, or even how to ask someone out. Once Shibayama returns, Naoyasu wants to organize a meet up and maybe—

Somehow.

Possibly.

—talk about his feelings. Or at least get the hint out that he was into guys in general, and see how Shibayama would react.

He’s been considering it for some time now; talking to Shibayama and outing himself needs careful planning and a proper setting. Daishou may be the perfect man to ask about those things.

Running a few rounds, Naoyasu hasn’t found an opening to even get Daishou in a proper setting to talk things through and ask advice. They’re immediately divided into groups to practice serves and receives. Naoyasu’s head keeps swivelling to where he usually keeps his phone, before remembering he put it in his back when Seguro found him. He wonders if he could excuse himself to the bathroom and secretly detour to his bag instead.

The first serve lands beside the court, and even on his own side. Mumbling, Naoyasu picks up another ball and positions himself to serve it, but it hits the white line of the net, falling on the wrong side again. Naoyasu’s eyebrow goes up, and he quickly bows to his coach who doesn’t seem happy about the misses.

He has no luck afterwards. Five balls later, and he still hasn’t made one good hit to be proud of. Naoyasu isn’t prone to listen to whispers concerning his person, but they’re not whispers any longer when it becomes apparent that today, his serves are absolute shit. Those who haven’t made it on the team although they wanted to, huddle together in groups, some not even bothering covering their mouths as they talk about him.

_This is what would happen if you’d come out as gay…_ Naoyasu thinks, but doesn’t dwell on the dark thought. Trying to think about where the ball should land, he readies his serve as a minor fury swells in his chest… and drives the ball full power into the net. The whispering intensifies, even close to him where Hiroo, Sakishima, and Seguro stand together.

“...Why is this so strangely familiar to see..? Ugh, just thinking about what it makes me think of gives me shivers” Hiroo murmurs, not sounding mad. He hits a ball over the net without much effort, and everyone watches how it hits the floor before the other side can even move.

“I know what you mean, it has to be _that_ , right?” Sakishima chuckles at first, then laughs harder when visible shivers shake Hiroo. He ignores Seguro’s question what ‘that’ is supposed to be.

“Hey, first years! Keep the receives up or it's all you’re going to do for the rest of the day,” Hiroo yells towards the other side, then hits a standing float serve, once more untouched by the rest. Sakishima turns to Seguro, his whispers too silent to be deciphered by Naoyasu’s not-so-eavesdropping ears. Eyes functioning as normal, Naoyaso sees Seguro blushing. He doesn’t mind being left out, and guesses it’s better not to know.

His thoughts wander more and more to Shibayama, and he wonders how he is holding up in Miyagi. The following serve goes straight under the net, the ball rolling to a stop near another first year’s feet. Shoulders sinking, Naoyasu guesses he’s just having an off-day.

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

Suguru and Kazuma stand at the side of the court, checking everyone’s performance. Like most of the club, their eyes are trained upon one of the youngest members, and his severe miscoordination. Watching another ball hitting the pole and bouncing back, Kazuma curses.

“Damn. He’s not having a good day, Kuguri isn’t.” Kazuma has grown in the last half year, not just in muscle size or length. Suguru remembers all too well the improper impulse control and loud mouth of Kazuma, whenever his year mates or older teammates messed up in training like this.

While Kazuma’s has never been one to smile about the misfortune of others in his own team, he was prone to anger when someone’s performance was baseline bad. Even though his ace position could be threatened by the first year Kuguri, he doesn’t find pleasure in watching him swing and miss.

Extended serve practice had been on their menu for a couple of years now. After Suguru’s vice-captaincy in his second year and being made captain this year after their senpai’s graduation, he’s made it a habit to have the club do serve practice like crazy on the long Saturday afternoons they had off after school. It was supposed to raise team morale and better the individual performances of serving and receiving. This weekend didn’t favour Kuguri’s hand, though.

Eyes squinting, Suguru makes sure not to scrunch up the papers in his hand as his worries rise. After Kuguri had received his spot on the team, he’s been way out of it. Suguru wishes for the new team were to become the strongest of them all. Despite Kuguri’s apparent lack of enthusiasm, Suguru had hoped that making the team as a regular and being able to play in games would light a fire under the first year. Instead, Suguru’s eyes cannot bear the sights in front of him; Kuguri turned up to practice and classes with his hair messier every time, and his performance dropped to this kind of abyss.

_It’s like he’s in love or something…_ Suguru thinks, and then he sees the light. Eyes wide, he looks up to Kazuma, who follows another ball trajectory fired by Kuguri to go away amiss. Even Kazuma’s curse are now muttered under his breath instead of being yelled across the court like a couple of months ago.

“Say, doesn’t this remind you of last year?” Suguru asks, as Isumi’s laughter fills this side of the court as Kuguri messes up one serve after the other. Kazuma’s eyes take their time to peel himself away from the bad performance, before he looks at his friend, confusion well hidden behind his stark features.

“Last year?”

“Didn’t I mess up like that too? It was during the time that I debated confessing to Mika. I was so in love and couldn’t think about anything else than her.” Suguru snorts, putting the papers behind him, bouncing back on the ball of his feet. He’d been an emotional mess and got side-tracked thinking about the girl. A lot. Kazuma’s face changes as his mind freshens visibly with memories of that time in Suguru’s life. The hawkish eyes turn lighter with mirth, and Kazuma’s face splits as he starts to chuckle. They watch Kuguri miss-hit a ball, which flies off towards the neighbouring court. 

“Don’t let Mika-chan hear you say it past-tense. You’re still into her, right? And you think about her feelings.”

“True, but I also have the club to focus on nowadays. It’s been harder and harder to find time for her. She’s getting irritated, y’know?” Suguru stops to worry about Kuguri when the day to day battle of his love life finds a place within these gym halls.

“Tough, man,” Kazuma says, too sarcastic to console Suguru, who focuses on their first year problem. Kuguri hasn’t gotten one ball over the net, and Oomizu notices. Their coach starts yelling at him from the side-lines, showing how to hold the arms and turn the torso. This enables Suguru to stay here a little longer, and explain his findings in theory to Kazuma.

“Look, there must be something wrong with him for this to happen. Don’t you think it could be a crush messing him up like that?” Suguru hopes Kazuma agrees. His friend has always been comfortable at confronting others about their performance, even if it was in a rude or crass manner. Kazuma wasn’t known to hold back in any aspect of his life, and said what he thought without a filter. Suguru knew that his own words could come out wrong. Mika has been hurt in the past, and he’d rather tread lightly around Kuguri. Oomizu and Suguru had discussed using Kuguri in upcoming practice match, but him being like this didn’t make him usable.

“You usually leave the investigations of such kind to Hirocchi and Isutan. Why me?” Kazuma questions, making Suguru laugh at the nicknames. They usually called the duo that way whenever they were out to gossip or find blackmail opportunities on their peers. Nothing mayor, but a little too evil at times. Suguru liked it, since he enjoyed knowing everything. This might be too sensitive for their taste, though.

“Hiroo and Sakishima are huge teases when other boys might get a relationship. And anyway, I think you may have a way with Kuguri. Just a gut-feeling.”

Kazuma huffs, his chest heaving. “If you say so… Although Hiroo and Sakishima usually go for you for that tease. Bad experience huh? In any case, your gut-feeling is more often right than wrong, so I guess I’ll talk to him.” As Kazuma finishes, one of Kuguri’s balls make it over the net. Everyone’s watches it, and then Takachiho’s voice calls out loudly.

“Out! Damn, that nearly touched the wall, Kuguri!”

“Rather sooner than later, if you please,” Suguru says to Kazuma who for once has the delicacy not to boom out his barking laughter. A good thing too, as Oomizu orders Kuguri to do dives around the three-court gym. Oomizu’s main issue with the team has been the lack of serving prowess, so no one joked around during their hard and gruesome practice hours when they worked on those. If Kazuma would have been loud at this point, Oomizu would have made him join Kuguri— _Wait, that would have been an opportunity… ugh whatever._

“Chill, Suguru. I’ll find a good moment, no problem. Unlike someone who barks it out like you all uncool like on the street.” Kazuma’s chuckle is well under his breath and all Suguru can do is stare daggers at him. Whenever his friends find a moment, they will tease him about him and Mika. Suguru kind of hopes that Kuguri can be spared, if he would come to sit in the same boat as him.

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

The time that the sun would set wasn’t much different birth of Tokyo, and yet it feels different to Yuuki. He looks up to the windows, as twilight changes colours toward night-time. He cannot remember being so fidgety in all his young years of life. Fingers twiddle when Yuuki’s idle, and his eyes shift around the rooms and halls he passes to see anything that could distract him. He was quick in and out of the baths, and waiting at the sleeping quarters of the inn for his friends. Fukunaga sits in a corner reading a manga volume Yamamoto gave him. He resides there in absolute silence and without a move wasted to turn a page.

The next time Yuuki goes on an excursion, he should bring reading materials too. He knew Inuoka had done so, but only for the bus rides. Yuuki guesses having anything else to do wouldn’t have helped his cause, his mind running back to the phone in his bag. He’s held himself back to write anything else to Kuguri, who might have been fed up after the long messages Yuuki sent before. Sighing, Yuuki gets up to look outside the window, then finds Fukunaga’s eyes on him.

“Uh-uhm,” Yuuki stammers, then quickly sits down on his futon again, facing his bag. Biting the corner of his bottom lip, he rummages through it for his phone, and finds a couple of messages from Kuguri. His heart beats against his chest in delight.

**Kuguri: Sorry for not saying more earlier. I didn't plan it right when I looked at my phone this morning, and ended up doing so before practice. Got scolded plenty, too.**

**Anyway, it's nice to hear that you’re having a good time. I didn't mention it earlier, but I was accepted into my team as well, even tho I’m on the bench for now… I might play this weekend tho. Since its practice matches, we sometimes get switched in so our main force can rest up, huh?**

**It’s not much we may be able to do, but I guess it’s better than just watching from the bleachers.**

Mouth pressing together, Yuuki smiles, his thumbs already responding when Yamamoto stands in the door entrance and calls Fukunaga.

“Time to fuel up, man.” Yamamoto grins wide, gleeful to eat after such a hard day. He notices Yuuki only after entering. “Oh hey, Shibayama. Inuoka already went to the canteen and I’m rounding up the rest.”

“Y-yeah, I’m coming!” Yuuki quickly glances over what he wrote, and adds that he has to go now. Fukunaga has gone from his spot to the door and leaves before Yuuki can even put his phone away. As he fully turns to go after him, Yamamoto shuffles towards Yuuki.

“Wow, you looked mighty happy just now! Talkin’ to a friend from home?”

“Y-yeah, a friend!” Yuuki stammers, feeling redness creep up his neck. Yamamoto laughs and acts like he doesn’t notice, telling Yuuki to wrap it up so they can refuel, as he calls the food times. They would meet Karasuno tomorrow, and the entire team was giddy with excitement. Yamamoto shows it more than others, but it hangs in the air nonetheless.

Even so, Yuuki cannot help waiting for the excursion to be over and to head back home. He really misses Kuguri, and would like to spend some time with him again...

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

The front of his shoulders hurts like hell, even on Monday morning. Naoyasu had done weights once with Numai at the beginning of the school year to build up muscle, and he remembers all too well the next morning he woke up; his shoulders were in so much pain that he could hardly change out of his pyjamas and into his school uniform. The two mornings after what had been about a 70 missed serves and a ton of flying falls around the three-court gym, Naoyasu prefers the weights. He even went as far to look up ways to relax the muscle pains.

When he texted Shibayama yesterday morning, he couldn’t tell him about it. ‘I sucked at practice’ wasn’t the image he wanted Shibayama to have of him. Sighing under the weight of it all, Naoyasu doesn’t notice the shadow waiting at the school gate.

“‘Sup, you look like hell. And I’m not talking about your berserk hair for once.” Numai pushes himself off the wall, uncrossing his arms. Naoyasu’s first instinct is to stop in his tracks as to not walk into Numai’s private space, which has a bigger radius than other people. It has been noticed by the first years at the club, but Numai had a much kinder set of expressions and camaraderie for those he knew than those outside the club. He would joke around, help out, and ask about your day. Still, like most first years, Naoyasu kept his guard up when he sees Numai’s neutral face. His thumbs lock under the strap of his bag, like a defence mechanism or ready to flee.

“I’m sorry… I really tried this morning.” Naoyasu apologizes, saying the same words he used towards his teachers when his hair issue comes up in class or in the halls. Numai’s face changes immediately, showing one of those rare smiles outside the gym halls.

“Heh, don’t worry ‘bout that. Come, let’s walk.” Numai enters the schoolground and Naoyasu, obedient towards the third year, follows next to him. He stares at the ground and waits for the other to speak.

“And, did you live down the shame from serve practice? Man, that was horrendous to watch,” Numai starts off, his voice more at a normal person’s volume than the usual boisterous loudness. Naoyasu could have started the day without all of this, but goes through the responses of nodding and accepting that he’s called out for the shit serves.

“Yeah, quite,” Naoyasu responds rather quiet, not knowing what he’s in for when the ace talks to him, and not the captain or the coach.

“Right, we all have off days, but you had an _off_ day, man. And it wasn’t the first time, either. You’re being distracted a lot?” Numai asks, and Naoyasu notices how paced his feet walk, how he’s in no hurry. He also looks at Naoyasu, a lot. It is as if he’s looking for something Naoyasu can give him.

“Uhm, not that I think so, no.” Naoyasu casts his eyes to the side. The image of Shibayama rising in his head, the first time they met without computers as a medium between them. That smile he had as warm as the fresh spring day, the way he tilted his head when he listened to Naoyasu, how small he had been, but also comfortable and at ease. How much he likes receiving and reading his messages, even the long ones about his day and performance. How much it sucks he’s off somewhere in Miyagi right now.

“Goddamn, Suguru was right. You are in love, dude!” Numai laughs, keeping his voice low when others pass them by.

Naoyasu blinks, not understanding why Numai used the word ‘love’ just now. He might have spaced out of the conversation, but that was a spiral too far. And what has Daishou to do with all that...

“So that’s what is biting you, I see.” Numai’s face becomes neutral once more. “So, tell me. Who's the lucky one?”

Stopped in his tracks again, Naoyasu stands still outside time and space. He knows that his crush on Shibayama wasn’t fading, and that it’s development was far from over. They were just friends; online friends that met once. Who talked mostly on the phone. It wasn’t as if Naoyasu could have had any claim on him just yet. Sure, the giddy stomach-aches, the constant craving to talk to him, feeling so odd when Shibayama’s laughter rang through his head… Naoyasu searches for that laugh in the things he shares with Shibayama or the jokes he tries to make, wanting to hear him happy above all else.

“I can’t really talk about it.” Even as he tries to spell it into words, Naoyasu isn’t capable of shoving what he feels past his mouth. Numai might have been taken aback or demanding an answer nonetheless, but he doesn’t push the matter too much.

“That hard, huh? I guess Suguru was wrong about me after all… Anyway, I know you haven’t been here long, but you should be able to trust your senpai. Some of them at least.” A corner of Numai’s mouth goes up in a smile, but falters right away. “If you feel that you can’t, it’s definitely our fault.”

No matter the kind words, Naoyasu’s deepest secret, which he buries deeper and didn’t, isn’t allowed to surface. He lacks the same confidence towards Shibayama, after all. Numai doesn’t keep him long, nor tries to drill him.

“You have my number, right? I’m sure Suguru and Isumi were giving our contacts around to the members. I’m always free ‘cept when I’m not. I’ll hear from ya if need be.” Numai’s words linger in the air, and Naoyasu cannot remember ever hearing his tone being this gentle. Looking to the ground, he nods, and heads towards the school with Numai when he starts walking. Naoyasu’s head spins to Shibayama’s return to Tokyo from Miyagi, which should be tonight.

“‘Kay so, we need to talk about your serves. Any ideas?”

Naoyasu’s stomach turns the wrong way as he imagines it. With a loaded heart he asks. “...More training?”

Numai grins, patting Naoyasu’s back a bit too rough. “Exactly what I thought.”

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

There are times Yuuki doesn’t know what he should do, even if its day to day stuff he’s done before without thinking. Yet when his thumb hovers over the call button, he hesitates. Going through breathing exercises, sitting down on a nearby stone bench, standing up, squaring his shoulders and inwardly scolding his cowardice, Yuuki talks himself through and out of calling Kuguri. He hasn’t been this nervous since before they met, and he doesn’t understand why all of a sudden it’s so hard.

The cool air runs along the skin unprotected by his Nekoma uniform. For a moment, Yuuki closes his eyes, looking up at the Tokyo night sky, void of stars. Miyagi had been so different, but now he was back. Kai has already gone his own way, having an easier transfer to where he lived. He was the last member Yuuki said goodbye to. Alone and away from the team members he’s been around this entire camp, Yuuki’s first thought goes to Kuguri, and that must say a lot.

He’d gone to the nearest exit to catch a breath after missing his train connection. Yuuki wants to let his friend know he has returned, but why that should even be important to Kuguri, Yuuki couldn’t fathom. He just wants to talk to him...

The choice is taken from him when his phone goes off.

“Ueeh!” Yuuki gasps, his phone jumping between his hands. Embarrassment creeps over his face as the bypassing commuters give him weird glances. He quickly accepts the call from god knows whom.

“H-hello?”

_“Hey, Shibayama. How are you?”_ Kuguri’s voice sounds over the speaker, brighter than before. Yuuki knows it must have been in his head, but Kuguri had sounded down in his texts as the Nekoma team practiced in Miyagi. It feels good to hear his voice lighten up like this again.

“Oh, it’s you, hey Kuguri. I’m good,” Yuuki manages to say without stumbling over his feet or words, glad he stands at the side of the road as to not to be nuisance. To his side, a couple of youngsters run across and into the station, yelling they’ll be late for the train.

_“Hey, are you still at Tokyo Station? I think I just heard something... Shouldn’t you be home by now?”_

_Be still my weakling heart. He’s just asking as a friend, not as if he hoped you’d be home already…_ Yuuki fumbles on his lips, then replies.

“Ah, no. Please don’t worry! Not that you would like, worry about me or—ehm. Yeah, I should have been, but I missed my connection.” Yuuki explains how he forgot something on the train being the last to get off, and had to run back. As he stands near the entrance of the underground station, Yuuki watches the lettering of arriving metro trains. Another one he isn’t going to make.

_“Oh… Take care, okay? Hold up, which exit are you at?”_

 

Everything happens so fast. Yuuki says his exact location, and Kuguri mentions he’s close by, drinking a milkshake. A coincidence that he was near, Kuguri told him he’d come over just to make sure Yuuki was okay. Yuuki’s protest about how his parents were aware that he’d be late arrive to no one, as Kuguri hangs up the phone.

In a matter of moments and restless waiting, Kuguri comes walking towards him. He carries a brown bag from the fast food joint he’d been at earlier.

“Here, you must be hungry. Sorry its take out, but there were a bunch of rowdy yankees over there just now.” Kuguri looks over his shoulders as if they had been following him, and Yuuki finds himself staring behind him too. Then the package of food is thrusts into his arms and he has other things to worry about. Such as Kuguri’s warm hands brushing against his.

“O-oh, that’s. Thank you so much, uh, how much did you pay..?” Yuuki manages to stutter out, not yet looking at the contents. In the evening gloom and the many lights in the city, Kuguri looks even more handsome than before.

“Mhn, nevermind that. There’s a bench over there, let’s sit.” Kuguri guides an overwhelmed Yuuki, whose protests stifle when Kuguri’s hand pushes his body into motion. Sitting down, Yuuki is unable to comprehend how one thing lead to the next.

What’s more concerning is how Kuguri looks at him. Yuuki’s chest shrinks and swells with each breath. He looks so handsome; the evening cool, the neon lights and his stylish clothes fitting him right in the Tokyo evening scene. In comparison, Yuuki feels like a kid, out too late and in need of protection, his red Nekoma uniform standing out uncomfortably. It had never mattered going to or coming from school, or being with the others as a larger group.

As Kuguri’s eyes are on him, Yuuki says his thanks quick, then gathers one of the burgers from the bag. He bites down, humming how tasty it is. “Thank you! How did you know I like this chicken special..?”

“...I guessed.” Kuguri looks away, conscious for reasons Yuuki doesn’t get. Too happy with the food, Yuuki chomps away at the first burger, pumped that Kuguri bought him two. He then figures he should tell Kuguri about the week he had. Sending easy to read messages has been on his mind for the latter half of the week, and Yuuki hasn’t told him about the last team they faced.

Without even mentioning the other Miyagi teams Nekoma battled, Yuuki jumps right onto the topic of Karasuno. In his mind, they had been the most special team, and he explains to Kuguri the old rivalry being re-instated, and the strange friendships that have been formed. Kuguri laughs with him when Yuuki talks about his own senpai, Yamamoto, and the buzzcut loudmouth on the Karasuno team. They had had bonded without anyone noticing, and were on friendly terms during the goodbye.

“They also had a beautiful manager who turned Yamamoto-san’s head. It was quite the spectacle. Inuoka and I had a bet with our senpai, and we won, actually.” Yuuki grins, and Kuguri’s smiles back kindly. Then his hand shoots out to Yuuki’s face, who forgets to breath as a hand touches under his chin.

“Hold it, you got something… there. It’s off.” Kuguri wipes up a blur of ketchup from Yuuki’s cheek, then cleans his finger by taking a napkin out of the bag, which is still on Yuuki’s lap. The rummaging distracts Yuuki’s haywire mind. Embarrassed and as red as the ketchup, Yuuki leans back on the bench, trying to eat less like a pig and taking smaller bites when he starts on his second burger.

“So, this beautiful manager… you think she was good looking?” Kuguri says it without much emotion, but there’s a tone in his voice Yuuki’s never heard before. Then again, they hadn’t spent that much time face to face, so it shouldn’t be surprising at all. He shouldn’t go on assuming what tones could imply what. Instead, Yuuki explains the universal beauty some people have, and that with this manager it was undeniable.

“She seemed like the popular type, too, but didn’t talk much. There was also this really scary guy on the Karasuno team, who has a beard! Just his chin though.”

“...Wait, was he really high schooler? How old was he?” Kuguri’s sceptic glance halts Yuuki’s enthusiasm, who then laughs and explains that Karasuno’s ace was actually a normal age in his third year.

“He just had this really rugged look about him, see. Long hair kept in a bun and hair on his chin. I think is name was Azumane… He turned out really nice though, but I was scared at first!” Yuuki says, remembering the continued apologies during clean up and how flustered he’d been.

As Kuguri listens, he leans back on the bench, his hands deep in his pockets and his knees widening. One of them touches Yuuki, but shies away from the contact as soon as it is made. Distracted, Yuuki takes one of the fries but misses his mouth when trying to eat it.

“...So… you think he was good-looking with the facial hair?”

“Mhn, I wouldn’t put it like that,” Yuuki blushes as he looks down on his fries, unsure what to say. This would have been an amazing moment to tell Kuguri just what kind of types Yuuki was into, guy-wise. And explain that he likes boys. As the silence stretches on, the moment to say anything about his sexuality, or even hint at it, goes by before Yuuki can find the courage. It’s probably for the better, given that they don’t know each other that long yet.

“I mean, he was nice and all but not so much visually appealing to me, per se. If that makes sense!”

“Hmm, I see. Sorry, I’m asking so much… I was thinking about what would happen if I grew facial hair, but that’s just a mere possibility.” Kuguri rubs his own chin, and Yuuki laughs.

“I cannot imagine you with that, not like what Karasuno’s ace had, at least. And in any case, you’re good-looking as it is.” There, he went and said it. Yuuki quickly picks up his milkshake and gets a brain freeze from how fast he drinks. Kuguri hovers close to him, making sure he’s okay, telling him to take it easy. Yuuki apologizes. “S-sorry, what I said just now must have been weird...”

“No, not really. Thanks, anyway.” Kuguri looks at him long enough to make Yuuki’s body feel weird, just like the first time they met. He could have said that so much cooler, but somehow Kuguri took it in good nature and didn’t think anything of it. At ease, Yuuki finishes the food Kuguri brought, then says he should be heading home.

“I’m coming to. You’re going to the metro station, right? My track is opposite yours.” Kuguri motions them towards the thread of people heading one of the many entrances.

There’s a ton of them around, but Kuguri’s hand touches Yuuki’s shoulder, making sure no one else bumps into them. Yuuki manages to somehow finish his thoughts about Karasuno’s oddball combo, and their amazing quick. As they go to the ticket gate, Kuguri’s hand disappears, and doesn’t return. Yuuki can’t be sure if he misses the touch, or if it has been too much for his heart to bear when they walk onto his platform. Kuguri looks up to when Yuuki’s train would arrive, seemingly not listening or interested. It has Yuuki believing he’s been too chatty once again, but Kuguri never told him so...

_It’s late after all and maybe he’s tired. I shouldn’t worry so much!_

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

“It’s amazing that your friend managed to block that,” Naoyasu muses, seeing he has only a couple of minutes before Shibayama’s train arrives. It’s now or never. “Anyway… are you having any more away training camps?”

Naoyasu had hoped to find an opening like this.

First calling Shibayama, hoping against hope he might catch him at the station, Naoyasu had put down his tray telling himself he’s not a creep at all waiting for Shibayama like this. When the odds were in his favour, Naoyasu had taken the food he bought for himself, and gave it to Shibayama. There’s been no deception about the milkshake, and he was glad Shibayama didn’t notice the contents of his own were a little lighter than what the sizing said.

Being able to not feel hunger when he’d been starving after practice must be one of the weird things crushes do to you, is Naoyasu’s best guess.

When he finally saw Shibayama again, the kid went off talking about one of the teams, which Naoyasu didn’t mind. What he had minded, deep in his gut, was the admiration Shibayama had for the various members of that team. He’d made a bold move inserting himself within that conversation about the beard-guy at Karasuno, but it had worked out somehow.

When asking about Shibayama’s schedule however, his luck runs out.

“Yeah, quite a few. But not until July, at least! Our club has these connections under the Fukuroudani academy group. Training camps at all our schools in rotation. The first is up in July, after the preliminaries, and one at the end of it, just at the start of summer vacation.” Shibayama’s voice trails off in Naoyasu’s mind, who sees his options limiting to a shorter span. Preliminaries start at the beginning of June, and would be held every weekend for the Tokyo prefecture. Even as bench players they had a certain pride and dedication to the club, although Naoyasu’s was more submerged.

In any case, he couldn’t make his claims on Shibayama’s time too obvious, especially when he sounds this busy. They also have exams coming up in a not so distant future. Here, Naoyasu’s mind perks with an idea. Shibayama looks past him, up to him, and for a blissful second he thinks they’re of the same mind. That somehow a connection born in raiding together, meeting up at a mall once, and connecting through texts and calls, would have elevated into a higher existence of their brainwaves being made one.

But when Shibayama’s mouth opens, Naoyasu is sure that him not eating before is making him delusional.

“Ah, thats my train, see!” Shibayama smiles, pulling his Nekoma shoulder back higher up. “Thanks for the meal and for staying with me. I owe you!”

Naoyasu, seeing his plan pass by like the underground train about to take Shibayama away from him, watches in stunning stupidity as Shibayama steps inside.

“Yeah, no you don’t really uhm.” He has one minute left. Shibayama must have sensed he’s still got something to say, and holds the door open. Naoyasu speaks up like he’s never done before, as fast as he can seizing the moment. “Uh, We have exams soon, too. Do you have any subjects you’re bad at? We could study together and I could help you.”

Shibayama dismays at the topic of exams, but then his face lights up and he nods, the front bangs of his parting in his face when he does.

“That’s a kind offer, but I am sure I’ve got nothing to be worried about.”

It’s a harsh thing; to see someone smile like this and then have your heart broken. Shibayama steps away from the doors as they close shut, his phone in his hand. He waves with it to Naoyasu, who nods in understanding. Waving back with his bare hand, Naoyasu watches the train carrying Shibayama away, then stands on the platform not caring about catching his own train, or about food.

His phone buzzes against his leg.

**Shibayama: Please don’t grow a beard! Take it from me, you don’t need it~!**

Maybe Naoyasu should ask his senpai for advice, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you liked this chapter/if you like this story in general, I would love to hear about it!! I'm threading into the territory of the fic which is... very tangled and convoluted, and I'm doing my best to do this super cute rare pair justice. I know people read it, I guess that the readers enjoy it, but it would be a huge help in writing and motivation to hear everybody's opinions and reactions!! ٩(｡•́▽•̀｡)۶


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Kuguri picks himself up after horrible club practices, he confides in one of his senpai. Numai Kazuma gives him courage to act on his instinct, and Kuguri receives a basic 'how to get the boy lesson'.
> 
> Meanwhile Shibayama falls more and more into a hole of liking and thinking about the boy he likes. Snuggling with his cat doesn't help, and his grades aren't improving.
> 
> With bath bombs and print club sessions, where will their story continue to go?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh, to be young and in love. Aren't (mutual) pining individuals just the cutest~? 
> 
> I struggled a bit with the pacing for this one, scene allocation and pov character lengths Dx I hope it is still a nice read~

As one serve after the other makes it more or less over the net and within the lines, Naoyasu checks Numai’s overall mood. After the failure no one talks about anymore, Naoyasu was able to shake it off and do better at practice. That he wants to be able to impress Shibayama or be better than those Miyagi country _punks_ has nothing to do with it; so he keeps telling himself.

“Alright, those were 15 in a row for the second time. Let’s take a break.”

When Numai towels his face off and takes a sip of his water, Naoyasu stares at him until he gets his attention, then opens his mouth to let the words inside of him speak freely.

“You said once that I… have a crush. And you weren’t wrong. There is someone that I like.” Naoyasu stops there, thinking it unwise to mention Shibayama’s name and which school he plays for. He didn’t want to jeopardize Numai’s mood like that.

“Right, which is why your serves went haywire that one time and you’ve been distracted during practice. You haven’t confessed to this person and now it’s eating you up. I’ve seen this behaviour before, y’know. And you shall receive the same advice I gave that person, too. Either you’re a man about it, or a wimp, Kuguri. Tell this… this person of yours how you feel or suck it up and get good at practice. We have no time here to baby you through your emotions, and they’re clearly hindering you and everyone else.”

Naoyasu’s eyes gaze to the ground, wishing it could be so easy. Numai can be harsh if he wants to be, if he sees reason.

“This person is a volleyball player like me. He doesn’t go to this school and… well he’s a guy.” Naoyasu wishes he would have been holding a towel, a water bottle, anything to grip for his sweaty hands. He links his fingers, not knowing what to expect.

“So? Same shit applies. Confess to him, or don’t. Dragging yourself through practice thinking about it can’t be good for your mind and heart.”

Surprise coursing through, Naoyasu looks up to his approaching senpai. To the free hand aiming for his arm. The pat that looked so much fiercer when given to others, touches him gently. “Love ain’t easy, but it’s worth it. Our break and the life lessons’ over for now, so get your ass back. Thirty more serves!”

“Y-yes, Numai-san…” A bit dazed, Naoyasu forgets to drink water or do anything else. He picks up a ball, serves it over the net, and aims all those that follow at difficult locations. With every serve, his minds drifts. It weighs pros and cons of confessing, how much Naoyasu wants it against how badly he could lose any chances of friendship. When the serves are done, his muscles are sore, same as his overthinking head. 

After refreshing himself and changing into his school uniform, Naoyasu stops before returning to the main building, and he stops to think. He just types.

 **Kuguri: Hey, you’re free Saturday afternoon, right? We haven’t really hung out in a while like that one time** _’And I miss you…’_ “No I can’t say that. Uh, ‘and I want’, no. ‘I need to go buy,’ mhnn. Oh, maybe… **And I need to buy a comb that can tame my hair. Wanna go after practice tomorrow?** Even if his memory isn’t the best at all times, Naoyasu knows Shibayama’s training schedule by heart.

And it skips a beat when Shibayama’s reply is immediate. 

**Shibayama: Kay, sounds good!**  
**Kuguri: Alright. Let’s meet at this station…**

Naoyasu adds the location closest to Shibayama, to make sure it's no hassle. Even if it’s something as small as this… if they could establish meeting up more often, or at least once during a week, maybe he can rate his chances of success better.

All is well, until Numai bumps into him.

“By the way, don’t forget the extra practice session on Saturday. Daishou took the opportunity of the basketball team being on a trip to use the gyms more.” Numai says, swaggering back into the main building. Naoyasu’s eyes widen. He looks at the message, the confirmation, and at Numai’s back. Meanwhile, Shibayama jokes around with another message.

**Shibayama: Comb huh… are your teachers giving you a hard time about the hair? Are you sure this is not a scheme and you just secretly want a taiko revenge ( งᵒ̴̶̷᷅ωᵒ̴̶̷᷄)ง⁼³₌₃ I’m just joking~! See you then!!**

Naoyasu sprints after Numai, calling him senpai first time this year. After all this trouble, he simply can’t prolong his wish to be around Shibayama any longer. 

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

Browsing through a new playlist, Naoyasu starts to wonder what side of him ever gave the idea that he may like hip hop. Hiroo and Seguro had liked and downloaded a bunch of music into one of the apps he uses. Now his ‘discover new music’ playlist assembles a bunch of hip hop next to the electronics. Not one for the harsh rap language, Naoyasu was confused when he listened to the many languages styles from other countries. He liked the beats and bass, which had made him have a weakness for EDM after all.

Dressed in light blue ripped jeans and a cool grey long sleeve, Naoyasu opts not to look on his phone for too long and pockets it after checking the time once again. He didn’t want to look too eager or desperate, after all. Naoyasu hardly cares about his image, but he likes to make a good impression on Shibayama, whose bound to walk out of this station’s exit any moment. The music too loud in his ears, Naoyasu doesn’t hear the underground announcements. 

Casual waiting and a nonchalant out look on life. Not as if he’s seeing his crush again.

Gaze to the ground, Naoyasu finds his head bobbing the heavy beats, not hearing much else. There’s people walking by without ever coming too close. Being a good 20 centimeters taller than Shibayama, he shouldn’t be able to miss him.

When a shadow appears running, Naoyasu has a second to look up and react. All of a sudden, he sees Shibayama coming towards him, mid-tripping on his feet, and falling. Naoyasu’s eyes widen, but with an reaction time given through the volleyball instincts, he reacts fast enough to catch Shibayama and make sure he’s not hurt.

“Hey, are you okay?” Naoyasu pulls one of his in-ears out, helping Shibayama to stand. He looks nervous and embarrassed, probably because he just got caught by a guy. Naoyasu has to keep himself in check, and lets his hand fall away from Shibayama’s side right away, but not too fast as if he actually minded the touch.

“Aaah, I’m so sorry! I thought I was running late and hurried up the steps, then didn’t watch my feet when I saw you and turned… damn, that was so uncool.” Shibayama fusses, his fingers playing with the zippers of his jacket, which sleeves he has rolled up to his elbows. Naoyasu can’t help to think he looks cute; he wears jeans a shade darker than Naoyasu, and has the pipes rolled up towards his calves. 

“Don’t worry about it. I’m glad you’re not hurt.” Naoyasu’s eyes linger long at the feet that just tripped, making sure Shibayama’s shoelaces were tight. “C’mon, it’s alright.”

If Naoyasu thought he could try and behave less protective of Shibayama, all that went up in smoke as soon as they went through the busy city center of Tokyo. The drug store Naoyasu wanted to visit was in the middle of a small street, and as it was after school on a sunny day, it was crowded to the brim. Not wanting to get separated or have Shibayama panic again, Naoyasu sneaks a hand over his jacket, trying to keep in touch. While shielding Shibayama from one side, Naoyasu would guide him forwards with his hand, making sure no one took notice of them being this close.

“Uhm,” Shibayama starts, but when Naoyasu looks down to him, the eyes avert towards the store. “This is the one you wanted to go, right?”

“Yeah,” Naoyasu murmurs, not sure what has happened to make him this shy all of a sudden. As they enter the store, they refresh under the blow of the air conditioner, then move to one side where the hair products are lined up against the wall. While Naoyasu looks around, Shibayama’s chattiness relaxes his mind. Naoyasu answers him any kind of question and hums in agreement when Shibayama talks about the tough training before school.

Having found a comb large and sturdy enough to maybe make a difference in the mornings, Naoyasu waves it to Shibayama. The brilliant smile he gets in return make his guts coil in happiness, and he feels fuzzy all over. Shibayama then leads him to the bath salts up ahead. 

“Does your place have a western bath?” Naoyasu asks, and Shibayama nods. 

“Our house is close by to a public one, so my parents opted for a western bath in our house. But it’s only used a few times a month… So our parents make us all go to the public one a couple of times a week. My little brother plays badminton and my older brother runs sometimes, so we usually go on days where we all had exercise.”

“That’s nice,” Naoyasu says, doing his best not to imagine going to those baths with Shibayama. A private one at his house, however—

“Here, you should try this one!” Shibayama hands Naoyasu a big round, coloured ball. Registering the words ‘bath bomb!’ and ‘Relaxation to the max!’, Naoyasu’s eyes shift towards a smiling Shibayama, who has his hands behind his back. When the glance becomes a stare to reach understanding, Shibayama scratches as his cheek, looking downwards.

“Ah, I noticed that your neck looked a little stiff, so I wondered if you had pulled a muscle… This bath bomb really helps with relaxing. D-don’t be worried ‘cus its pink!” Shibayama adds, as Naoyasu unveils the colour by turning the package around, as he notices the see-through packaging on the other side. 

“I don’t mind if it's pink… it’s just quite amazing that you noticed that.” Naoyasu hadn’t thought that the muscle pains -which returned after hard sessions with Numai- where this obvious. Shibayama must have had sharp eyes.

Or has watched him intently.

“Thanks, I’ll try it this evening.” Naoyasu manages a smile, fueled by hope that Shibayama was indeed watching him closely for the same reasons that had Naoyasu’s skin tingle when he sees that relieved smile. They walk through the store, more aimless now that Naoyasu had everything he needed and Shibayama wanted to look around since he doesn’t come here often. Naoyasu could have gotten lost without a care, if Shibayama would be there with him. The most mundane things to do or to talk about were enjoyable as long as Shibayama talked about it or did those things with him. 

Nonetheless, Naoyasu doesn’t see an opening to talk about more intimate things. Shibayama also declines going to a food place because he promised his brothers to eat pizza with them later. So instead, Naoyasu walks Shibayama back to station they met earlier, and watches him walk away, none the wiser.

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

The soft purring of Yuuki’s cat hums through his hopeless bones. Selly lies on his chest, black and round, loving the ear scratches she’s receiving. Yuuki wishes he could be as a content as his cat, as carefree and confident. Instead, he lies on his bed, staring at the ceiling, his mind running around in circles. 

He had joined Kai at a neighbourhood practice this afternoon. All his homework was done as Kai tutored him in small breaks and after practice. He’s showered, visited the public baths with his brothers and they all ate together. Sunday evening couldn’t start off any better after the way the day had gone.

Yuuki didn’t feel like reading anything, or watching tv with his family. He’d just spent some time texting with Kuguri, who had thanked him for the advice on the bath bomb. 

And his mind drifts. Less _here_ and more _there_ ; there being wherever Kuguri is sinking into a hot tub, enjoying his bath bomb. Naked within these amazing scents, the water pink…

His own face becomes red at the thought. Yuuki knows he shouldn’t think about it. But watching Kuguri, his neck, and then imagining that same neck with no clothes following under it…

Selly, satisfied with her daily human love, runs away, leaving Yuuki to stress about how he feels alone within this too quiet room. He can’t listen to music because each and every pop song that was sort of talking about love became too relatable, too cheesy to picture himself and Kuguri within the song’s lyrics. 

“Pathetic…” Yuuki moans, becoming embarrassed all on his own and rolling to his side. He _could_ study for a pop quiz he has next week… It’s in the subject he’s doing below average at.

But closing his eyes and thinking about Kuguri in a hot pink bath tub is all the more entertaining. So his minds drifts.

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

Breathing out a steady breath, Yuuki lifts the cover of his clear file. The red mark looms on the top right corner, with a handwritten note of his teacher to do better. Shivering fingers drop the clear file cover back down, but still the mark remains seen above the array of cats. Putting his head in his hands, Yuuki tries to think how this could have happened.

He studies every day. Kai tutors him every now and then. And he just skipped revising one time. Maybe two evenings. But Yuuki had his homework done without problems. The library might not be one of his favourite places, but he’s been there when he had time before practice.

His phone buzzes, and Yuuki glances at the LINE pop up message. 

It’s no one’s else fault. There was one subject where he slacked off. When studying and reading became less important, and replying to longer messages this week (and Kuguri’s messages were steadily growing!), had Yuuki first forgetting what he read in the books and later simply closing them without a care. Surprisingly, two tests came back with low marks, something he isn’t that used too. 

Yuuki slides the phone in front of him, typing a reply despite the stress building up in his head. Plopping down on the bed next to Selly, he caresses the cat’s ears. “Just what am I supposed to do…”

Lying down on his side, Yuuki lets his black cat settle in front of his stomach, as his arms curl above. He holds his phone in front of his face, watching his reply getting read, and waiting for Kuguri to respond. Surely if he studies harder, the exams will pose no problem— 

Maybe taking up Kuguri’s offer to study together isn’t such a bad idea. It shouldn’t be, because they’re friends. But whenever Yuuki thinks of the other guy, his daydreams picture them as so much more than raid mates, acquaintances, or friends. 

Biting his own bottom lip, Yuuki wonders what Kuguri’s would feel like.

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

Naoyasu stands at the side, a little off from the group discussions. It shouldn’t be seen as odd that after morning and afternoon practice, he doesn’t want to talk about volleyball tactics from other teams. As it is, the team regulars stand around Takachiho, whose relative secured a match recording of two other teams which have dominated at the InterHigh last year. Given that Naoyasu’s performance and his general lack of interest to ‘get into the zone!’ as their coach stated, he wouldn’t play them anyway.

The other person who seems not in the mood to watch, is surprisingly his captain. Daishou holds his papico ice cream between his teeth, furiously texting away on his phone. Naoyasu isn’t the only one who notices.

“Trouble in paradise?” Hiroo asks, his eyes not glancing away from the screen in front of him. Daishou’s face scrunches up in irritation.

“Stop saying that. We’re fine,” Daishou replies, then huffs a breath as he reads an incoming message. At this point, Naoyasu is well aware of his captain’s love life and the problems occurring within it. As the rest of the team springs up to tease their captain and some offering help with how to deal with a girl (despite being single themselves), Naoyasu feels his own phone receiving a text. And another one. 

Biting a chunk of his ice cream, and as the attention is far removed from himself, Naoyasu takes a look. As his eyes read on they widen a bit as a third text appears, and he hears his heart beating in his ears. 

**Shibayama: those days sure are tough. Even us benchwarmers have to train hard and keep up.**

**Anyway about what you mentioned that time when I came back from Miyagi… Uhm, this may sound super lame but**

**how are you on subject memorization? I am not the best and my grades for this one subject have dropped a little bit. I’m worried because as I told you, taking supplementary lessons would mean missing out on the upcoming training camp. Do you maybe… have some time to spare and revise with me? (｡•́人•̀｡) Please? I’ll feed you the snacks that you like!**

Involuntarily, and before he can stop himself, Naoyasu’s fist rises and he exclaims a small ‘yes’ out of the pure happiness filling his system. He wants to reply to Yuuki that it’s obviously no problem, and see which dates would work best for the both of them. But his thumbs hover over the keyboard, as he feels watched. Eyes up, he finds the entire regular team -match recordings and girlfriend troubles forgotten- looking at him. 

“That’s rare, seeing you this energetic. Got a sexy mail?” Hiroo teases, and Numai punches his shoulder.

“Shut the fuck up Hiroo, he’s innocent. Don’t corrupt him.”

“ _Innocent_ , huh…” Hiroo grins, his smile not leaving his face even when he bends over Takachiho to press a replay button. As the recorded match continues, Hiroo says, “I remember Suguru being innocent once. Well, more than what he’s now.”

“Excuse you?” Daishou grumbles, his teeth biting down on the cola bottle-formed ice cream package. If he wasn’t so busy texting his girlfriend and being engrossed in _not_ eating his ice cream, he would have gone over to Hiroo. And Hiroo knows that much. Naoyasu watches as Daishou continues grumbling towards his screen. 

Even after everyone’s attention drifts off Naoyasu’s person, he finds Numai’s hawk eyes watching him. And a wink floats his way.

Being annoyed at his upperclassmen doesn’t keep Naoyasu from replying to Shibayama though. Something short and cool, as if he hadn’t been hoping for this all along. 

**Kuguri: Sure, no problem. You free this Sunday?**

*

 

*

 

*

 

They really shouldn’t be here.

“Do you remember a time we didn’t have a million of these? One of my cousin -not the uncool one, mind- said there used to be way fewer and only at certain locations. Imagine having to stand in _line_ ,” Kuguri says, dropping his stuff in front of him. Yuuki does the same, as the bad feeling in his stomach rises.

They shouldn’t be doing this. They were supposed to study. At Yuuki’s home. Because he needed better grades.

“Well,” sighs Kuguri, taking up the black pen. “Let’s see what sort of face distortion monstrosities this one has to offer.” 

Tapping away on the options, Yuuki watches as Kuguri runs through the PuriKura, until he finds one he’s happy with. Every now and then he looks up, and Yuuki can’t help but smile back at him in the camera.

“Seguro-san showed me one Hiroo-san and Sakishima-san dragged him too. The biggest, most scary eyes you can imagine, and these plump lips as pink as the bath bomb you recommended me.” Kuguri shakes his head, making sure the PuriKura machine won’t make them look insane and well… _uncool_.

“Yeah that would be… not so good,” Yuuki stammers, inching closer to Kuguri to stand more in the frame.

He should be studying. Learning. Not being here and getting up close and familiar with Kuguri whom he really likes. So much that his neck begins to get warm and he doesn’t know where to put his hands. And Yuuki rubs a nail over his cheek, looks up in the camera to check his hair. 

“You look fine. When we take the pictures, I’ll bend my knees. Don’t worry,” Kuguri gives him one of those rare, sweet smiles. It reaches his eyes. Then he turns back to the machine. “Okay I think I did good at damage control.”

As promised, Kuguri bends his knees to lower himself. Before Yuuki’s brain can even catch up, an arm pulls him into Kuguri’s space. It’s a miracle he manages to look up and smile, that he doesn’t put his own face right next to Kuguri’s as the camera clicks and clicks. It goes by in a flash, and then Kuguri is gone from his side and toward the options.

“Hey, Shibayama?”

“Y-yeah?” Yuuki blinks, looks at the black pen Kuguri holds out in front of him. He steps closer and they decorate their pictures. Yuuki feels bad. Most of them look alike. “We didn’t really… do poses or anything.”

“No… we didn’t.” Kuguri looks at Yuuki’s selection. “But I like it. Nothing too extraordinary or well, stupid.” 

Yuuki smiles, then customizes lettering, today’s dates, and backgrounds. He hesitates adding cat whispers and ears when he could draw them, then once more when it flies by in the stickers one can add to the pictures.

“You’re free to do whatever, Shibayama,” Kuguri says without looking to him, his eyes intent on his own selection. Yuuki tries out the cat stuff on himself, finding good fitting angles. 

“What’s your favourite animal?”

“Mhnnn, animal huh,” Kuguri looks up, then to Yuuki. “I think cats are cool. You had a cat right…” Then Kuguri leans over Yuuki, tapping on the image Yuuki is playing with. “Give me those as well. It’s cute.”

Yuuki knows in his heart he should tell Kuguri to wrap it up. That they had to go. That at home books and notes were waiting. That Kuguri promised to help him revise. The same as Yuuki had seen that Kuguri had sore neck, Kuguri said Yuuki had a sore-everything and needed a little break.

This break might be a bit longer than intended, but Yuuki can still feel the places Kuguri touched him; where his hand pulled him in, where his arm held him close, where his torso touched Yuuki’s shoulder.

Outside, they cut the PuriKura in two stips, one for each. Yuuki holds his, feeling content. The pictures would look nice in his cat pencil case.

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

“Any progress?” Numai says first thing as he watches Naoyasu enter the gym. Naoyasu doesn’t have to look around him to know this can stay private. He shakes his head, shakes his shoulders, looks at his feet.

“We spend time together but… he needed to revise for one of his subjects sooo…”

“I get it. Couldn’t just go and attack him like that,” Numai nods, rolling his shoulders with his elbows stretching back. “Scary stuff if you can’t trust your instinct and just. I don’t know. _Go_ for it. Kiss him on the mouth and see what his genuine reaction tells you all you need to know.” 

Naoyasu had thought about. Read up on accidental kissing, how to bring up the subject of kisses, how to get to know anything the like from Shibayama. But he had been a coward. The only good thing he managed yesterday was holding Shibayama close to him for a couple of seconds in the PuriKura cabin. That’s how far his current courage allows him to go. 

“He’s… not tall in statue and uh…” This time, Naoyasu took a quick glance around before continuing. “He’s… very sweet. I don’t want to scare him off and I want… to keep us on friendly terms.”

Numai stares for a full 8 seconds before opening his mouth. “You really like him and don’t want to upset him.”

Naoyasu goes through the nod motion before Numai laughs out loud and swings his arm hard against Naoyasu’s back. “Man, I’d never thought you’d be one to gush, Kuguri. Right right, so you can’t just… bam it on the poor fool who doesn’t see how much you like him.”

Without a care for Kuguri's angst, Numai barks a laugh, saying its useless to think that like. “You’re gushing about this kid, and he seems genuine and nice. Y’know, you know, you shouldn’t BAM it.”

“...’Bam’ it?”

“Uhuh, sounds like it might frighten him. Here’s what’s you gotta do. Go for the slow kill, you get me? Using your hands, touch him softly. Lower your eyes, look at his lips to prepare him for what your intentions are. Then pull his chin or bottom lip down, see his reaction. If you take it slow and don’t trap him, there’s plenty of room for him to back off and tell you ‘No thanks’. But if he allows for the kiss to happen and you’re good at it, it might give him stirrings, you see, and he won’t even consider to say no to you.” 

Numai has been smiling the whole time, while Kuguri contemplates how the ‘hard shell, soft core’ applies to Numai like letters in a textbook. Not many would think him ‘kind’, or wanting to help out and be this soft about it. At least outside their team no one would believe this version.

And even in the team people know not to mess with the ace. 

“Give it a thought and find your courage. It’s better to let it all out than keep it bottled in all the time, Kuguri.” 

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

On the latest quiz, Yuuki’s score improved a tiny bit. His mother reads over the number and his answer, nodding slowly.

“And Kai-kun tutored you during that extra practice?”

“Not on this subject, but on another. I have a test on it tomorrow. Uhm, Kuguri-kun helped me with this.” Yuuki’s luck holds. When Kuguri and he stole out of the house for the PuriKura, he’d been alone at home. They didn’t return to study excessively, but Kuguri gave him some tips on memorization which have been a lot of in other fields too. His mother wasn’t exactly thrilled with the minimal change, but her mood lights up nonetheless. 

“Kuguri-kun was your internet friend right, but you two don’t go to the same school. Hmmm, I think you should study a little harder, Yuuki. But training is so important to you as well… I have an idea!” Yuuki’s mother clasps her hands together, and the words that follow out of her mouth have Yuuki staring for half a minute before he can react.

“Wait, really!?”

“Yes, I think it’s a good idea. Saturday afternoon after your practice, just bring him over. And let me know what kind of food he likes, alright? I’ll prepare dinner accordingly.” 

“Oh, yeah sure, I will ask him.” Yuuki walks away with the hot chocolate his mother prepared for him. She claims the chocolate milk will help with his muscle re-growth, but Yuuki just likes the idea of drinking something unhealthy. He has to watch out entering his room as Selly comes to greet him, as she slithers around his legs. 

Even as Yuuki writes out the invite, his heart beats louder against his chest. He’s giddy for a chance like this, and nervous, too. Without adding that it was his mother idea (but that she thought it would be good school-wise), he sends the message into yet another void.

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

Naoyasu doesn’t believe in karma. The whole purpose of leading a good and fulfilled life shouldn’t be to believe some invisible force, or only doing things for other people for one’s own merit. As he’s playing around on his phone, opening his chat with Shibayama every ow and then, he tries to find good reasons to hang out with him. He could surely just say that, or ask if Shibayama was interested in the new menus at such and such place. 

But with Shibayama, there was more purpose involved. Setting was important, and Naoyasu has been thinking hard on sending veiled messages. 

As it was, karma had its merry way with him. He doesn’t like to think that there’s a correlation of helping and elderly couple with their groceries and the incoming message of Shibayama. The couple and their heavy bags were on the same route as his house, and walking to their corner to drop of their things wasn’t that big of a deal.

Yet, Naoyasu cannot shake the feeling that someone was watching over him, willing his and Shibayama’s path to come together in a natural and unassuming way. 

A sleepover would pose every perfect opportunity imaginable. 

While he writes his text, he manages not to feel too bad about this; Shibayama really needed his grades to be better and wants a good score on all subjects for this training camp. It just so happens that a not so good grade allows them to be together and study. Naoyasu knows he won’t be able to steal him away into the city, but being at Shibayama’s house for a prolonged amount of time….  


**Kuguri: A sleepover sounds good. My parent’s don’t mind if I’m away at weekends. And my favourite dish are soba noodles with wild veggies. Any veggies will do, to be honest. At what time can I come over next Saturday?**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't sure if I wanted to add the sleep over in this chapter or not, till I saw that what I have so far was an okay-ish chapter length. Plus pacing-wise, and with what's to come, having the sleepover (and everything else, fufufufuu) in a separate chapter seems good to me .v.
> 
> It would be lovely to hear what everyone is looking forward to! I cannot promise to include it, but hearing people's opinions is important to me :D


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> > Yuuki remembers how Kuguri’s head came closer all of a sudden. How his eyes widened, mouth mid-word. Hands that were previously on a futon faltered. And next thing Yuuki knows, he lies on his back, completely unsure how he got into this position.
> 
> Yuuki invited him over. For a sleepover. For a study session. For a _sleepover_. Naoyasu cannot help but stand still during the run, closing his eyes as he lifts his head a little. He’s supposed to run without rest for this endurance training. Yet gifts from the gods cannot be ignored.
> 
> And this chance to be alone with his crush, at his crush’ house, for a sleepover? He would have to buy an expensive fruit as an offering later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaahhh I’ve finally gotten to the part that inspired this entire fic! More about this in the end notes because of possible spoilers uvub
> 
> Also there’s a million kisses in this. I have a feeling once I get my ships started with kisses/ero things, they cannot stop anymore ww I paced some of it out to the next chapter because of pacing and well, variety :D I also added the last scene in here because otherwise it was a very imbalanced pov.. (it had a 1/3 vs 2/3 ratio in favour of Shibayama freaking out all the time www) I just like writing kisses a lot okay ;w; and it took me some time to figure out what sort of kisses go where, and how to deal with this chapter as I had two different timelines/things happening Dx
> 
> I'm not putting Kuguri as a bad boy in this fic, but I wanted to show some differences between how straight and honest Shibayama looks and the perception of the Nohebi team. Kuguri is not lazy or anything, but he likes to relax a bit more and well, take Shibayama some place when they shouldn’t www he’s not gonna be a bad influence or anything the like uvu
> 
> As an extra special treat, instead of doing the most beloved bed sharing… I give you a shared bath o(｀ω´*)o
> 
> Please enjoy! And if you see mistake that are too hardcore or things that don't make sense, please let me know ;v;

People run past him, everyone going ahead, racing not just for endurance but against each other. Naoyasu has no drive to push himself over any limit. He jogs to the best of his ability. As long as he reaches the goal (and preferably not last), it is enough. The last 2 kilometer from the school had gone alright, and he was about to take the bend that would return him home. 

Looking up to the fluffy clouds high in front of him, his legs weaken. Slowly but surely, he falls from the run to the jog into a walk, coming to a standstill. 

One thought crossing his mind, every single time he thinks about anything else than running. It makes his stomach giddy, an unbidden smile spread on his face. Shibayama invited him over; it was a sleepover, for sure. A study sessions in which they had to properly concentrate and work hard. But it would end in a sleepover, a waking up to Shibayama Yuuki. Closing his eyes as he turns his face to the sky. 

How could he not think of the possibilities the gods of fate were presenting into his lap?

“Kuguri! Don’t just take a break, get a move on!” Sakishima yells from the front, running backwards. Brought back by the harsh reality of Saturday post-school training, Naoyasu brings his legs forward. He can thank the gods later.

Anticipation of tomorrow has him running just a little faster.

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

Standing with a mop in hand, Yuuki’s mind drifts to a list of things. Most things on this list have been taken care off, or would be by his mother’s hand. He runs them through nonetheless, wanting to make 100% sure he’s not forgetting anything. Wanting Kuguri to feel welcome and cared for. To not have him regret coming to Yuuki’s place and spend the night. Yesterday he made sure that all he had to do on Saturday morning, was to make his bed.

Chills run down his spine. His bed. ‘Spending the night’. It sounds a lot more mature… Too mature yet for Yuuki’s taste. A blush creeps from his cheeks to his neck. He disallows a smile to rise. 

“Shibayama, I don’t want you to tell you how to clean a floor but… I am sure that spot has thoroughly been mopped,” Kai’s voice comes from the fog that becomes Yuuki’s overheating mind.

“Eh?”

Looking down, Yuuki watches himself stopping the circular mopping motion. A little embarrassed, he nods and moves on, making sure not to lag behind the other first years. Morning practice was just done, and everyone's excited. This Sunday, Nekoma would have two practice matches against other schools. The bench would have a lot to play, or so the coaches warned. Yuuki files out later with the other first years, wondering if they'd actually let him play instead of Yaku... Then his mind turns to Kuguri, and if Yuuki should take a quick shower at home after Kuguri has come in…but that would be rude. Instead, Yuuki makes a mental note to ask Yamamoto for his deodorant later. Yamamoto doesn't mind. He claps Yuuki on the back, tells him to keep the deodorant because it's near empty anyway. "And I have to buy a new one before Sunday, so! See you then, Shibayama!"

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

When Naoyasu steps out of the train and sees Shibayama waving at him with enthusiasm, it’s hard not to feel drawn to the smiling lips. It takes a lot of willpower not to touch him in any way, too. Shibayama greets him usually by asking about his train-ride and then talks about his day, test scores, and funny things he’s encountered. It’s a nice noise to listen to, Shibayama’s constant stream of story-telling. Naoyasu feels his mouth twitch up into a smile of his own by the time they’re out in the streets. 

This is closer to Shibayama’s neighbourhood and his turf, and Naoyasu lets himself go with the flow, being brought to the nearest shopping area. Neither of them need clothes, but doing whatever with Shibayama is fun, and Naoyasu poses for a picture they take with ridiculous fishing hats and large sunglasses. 

Shibayama checks his phone now and then, and Naoyasu doesn’t want to pry, until he notices Shibayama’s change of direction whenever he looks at his phone and asking Naoyasu if he wants to do anything special. 

“There’s a—a cafe I’ve been told has really healthy juices. Wanna try it?” Shibayama stutters are rare, and he’s red around the ears, too. Naoyasu acts as if he hadn’t noticed, and nods. The place is not far away; Shibayama walk into the wrong place, however. 

The juice bar has a cafe too, same name and style, only here they serve coffee, tea, and cake. Shibayama doesn’t notice until it’s too late, and out of being flustered, he orders quickly. Naoyasu acts as if it had been part of the plan, and orders for himself, too. Naoyasu takes their tray holding Shibayama’s mocca frappucino, strawberry syrup and whipped cream topped off with fruit bits, and a simple earl grey tea mug for himself. When they’re seated, Shibayama puts his head in his hands, ruffling his fingers through his black hair.

“Aaah, am I blind!? And I ended up ordering, as well!” He ruffles his scalp, harder this time, eyes scrunching close. 

Naoyasu circles the teaspoon in his mug, without having added anything in it needed to be stirred. 

“I don’t mind. We can get a refreshing juice to go after this, I’m sure.” He doesn’t mind spending time with Shibayama, obviously, and the cafe is more date-appropriate, too. He starts wondering if Shibayama’s phone is full of places to take your loved one on a cute date. Again, he won’t pry.

“Yeah, I guess so… My mom doesn’t want me to eat too much sugary stuff, so I don’t come to drink stuff like this often.” His mother nowhere in sight, Shibayama takes a spoonful of his artistry coffee, swaying a little at the sweet taste while his eyes are closed. “Oooh, but it’s sooo good! Here,” 

Shibayama holds out the spoon with pieces of fruit and syrup. Naoyasu shouldn’t eat it; he holds his stomach for a second, knowing he took his meds today, and that it is only one spoonful anyway. Not thinking his allergy is going to act up too bad, he lets Shibayama spoon-feed him, before leaning back. Whipped cream sure is tastier when Shibayama offers it of his own spoon. 

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

The walk through Kuguri’s neighbourhood is not much different than near his own. Yet Yuuki’s eyes went wide, trying to take in as much as possible of the surroundings. The way to Kuguri’s house was easy enough. And if he’d walk back to the station, surely he would remember how to visit on his own. There’s not many corners to take, and there’s landmarks Yuuki can easily remember.

Pushing his thumbs under the straps of his backpack, Yuuki relieves some of the pressure off his shoulder. Kuguri, knowing he likes cats, tells him a funny story about a black and white creature stealing— of all things a cat could want —the small unripe apples of a neighbours yard.

“But they could be poisoned!” Yuuki exclaims, his feet not quite following Kuguri out of shock. Kuguri turns to him, laughing.

“No, see. The cat never ate the apples. It just uses them as a ball. But playing with the little things too roughly, they rolled off or got smashes, and so the cat kept stealing new toys from the tree. The neighbour has been considering and trying a lot of distractions and mechanism to keep the cat out, but well—”

“Cats don’t work that way,” Yuuki laughs, a lot more at ease now. He continues following Kuguri. Yuuki’s plans weren’t shattered in the least; he took Kuguri to the café, and they had gone outside. Then Kuguri remembered that he forgot something important at home. Given that they met early, Yuuki concedes that they should just go together. He didn’t want to stay apart, and seeing Kuguri’s home would be cool.

And they had time to study afterwards anyway…

Kuguri stops in front of a small gate, opening it with a push. Unsure if he’s actually invited in or should be waiting outside, Yuuki takes a couple of careful steps forward after him. When Kuguri looks back with a quirked brow, Yuuki acts as if he looks at the front garden, and follows quickly behind him. 

They go through the house in much the same style; Yuuki feeling as if he’s intruding every step of the way, and Kuguri reassuring him he’s welcome on this rather short visit. Kuguri’s bedroom is actually on the base level, all the way in the back. When he opens the door, Yuuki first sees the large wide windows, and a gorgeous garden on the other side.

If he’d be a cat, he’d definitely visit here a lot more than trying to steal fruits for playful use.

Then he takes in Kuguri’s room. It’s sparse with decoration, and there’s a true unity in the style and colours of his furniture. The only mess Yuuki can see is his school bag next to the desk; the school bag stands at an angle, notebooks and papers sticking out from the zipper opening. Yuuki bites his bottom lip. The bag is not school-issued, or at least not customized in the school name and colours. It wasn’t a generic school bag either. The smell of expensive leather reaches Yuuki’s nose.

He’s never noticed it before.

“Ah, my dad brought that bag new for me. Uuh, if he sees it like this he’ll fuss…” Kuguri crouches next to it, lifting the bag on his chair and putting the things properly away before closing it. “And here’s what I forgot.” 

The spiral notebook hangs in front of Yuuki’s nose. Lifted up like that, Yuuki’s surprised to see someone’s else name on the cover. 

“Sakishima Isumi… One of your senpai?”

“Yup. He calls himself average in most of his classes, but has always been a genius when it comes to literary arts. Sakisihima-san tutored every third year in the club and raised the general average of their grades to over 80 points on the tests. So yeah, I asked him if I could borrow his notes to help you out. He’s tutored me too, so I kinda know how to go about it.” 

Kuguri rubs the back of his neck, holding the spiral notebook in hand. “I uh, forgot it just because I have a same-ish looking cover.” 

Showing it off by taking it out of his bag, Yuuki can see how that mistake could be made. Both the covers have the same tones of oranges and pink, depicting stationary at the corner. Where Sakishima had wrote his name, Kuguri’s notebook had an English phrase.

“What does it mean?” Yuuki asks, pointing at the corner. Kuguri looks away, or well, turns away to put his own spiral notebook between his other subjects on the desk.

“Just something I thought sounded cool… ‘Go after what means most to you’. To be honest, I don’t know if it’s even grammatically correct the way I wrote it,” Kuguri mumbles the last sentence, busier putting Sakishima’s important notes in his bag. he rummages longer in it than seems necessary. Every no and then, he curses, then lifts his bag and shakes it. As if it wasn't anything important, Kuguri puts the bag down on his desk, looking at Yuuki. “Hmm, okay. That should be it. So, this is my room. Nothing interesting here, I guess.” 

Yuuki looks around one more time, determined not to stare at the double-bed in one corner. The room was luxurious not just with the amazing view and entrance to the garden, but also in space. There was a lot of room to move, even with the low table in the middle. 

“I like sitting outside on the deck more during the summers, honestly,” Kuguri says, eyeing the glass door to the garden with a longing Yuuki can understand. Studying here would be very distracting… Between the lovely garden, the free space to lounge about, and Kuguri— Yuuki draws his eyes away from Kuguri’s profile, and joyfully exclaims they should get going.

“My mom’s waiting,” he says, hoping it doesn’t sound to pathetic. But Kuguri smiles, full of understanding. "Sure, but... please don't mind me. I have to use the bathroom first." Yuuki nods and smiles, saying he'd take Kuguri's bag outside and wait. "Oh, don't bother. I can take it myself," Kuguri starts, but Yuuki has it already slung over his shoulder. "Habit! See you outside," Yuuki smiles, faster than Kuguri could catch him, he heads to the door. It's good, to get away, to breath fresh air. He wish he could have stayed in that room, to not think about homework and any school education...

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

“Your brothers aren’t home?”

“My older brother is having a study cram session elsewhere. My younger brother is playing soccer with friends, and probably will make it just in time for dinner. If he’s not eating ramen elsewhere,” Yuuki explains. In fact, he had asked his brothers for some privacy, by hinting the aforementioned activities to them. Without them here, at least the space seems less occupied and not so cramped.

Yuuki likes his humble home. Kuguri gives it the same look-around as Yuuki did over at his place. He nods afterwards and saying it was pretty standard. Unable to reply otherwise, Yuuki rubs the back of his neck. Leading the way to his bedroom door, Yuuki makes a mental check, knowing for sure he hadn’t forgotten anything when he left this morning.

Knowing his room is a lot smaller than Kuguri’s, Yuuki hesitates. Maybe he should go back to the living room—but Kuguri is behind him already, and he’s staying over, too.

“Something the matter? If you need to clean, I can wait up,” Kuguri points his thumb towards where he came. “But I don’t care, if I’m honest. Would surprise me though; you come across as a neat person.”

Eyelashes blinking fast, Yuuki laughs as he opens the door. “Do I? I guess it’s the hair… I do like to keep things clean…” Yuuki says, entering the small room. Kuguri follows along, following Yuuki’s example of dropping his bag next to the table. Of course when Kuguri does it, he looks graceful and cool. Yuuki stands aside, letting Kuguri look around. His eyes fall on the two volleyball posters. A smile graces his lips.

“Liberos, of course.”

Laughing, they sit down. Yuuki makes a short trip to the kitchen, returning to Kuguri taking out his notebooks and utensils one by one. Yuuki fondly remembers how their first meeting had gone; he had so much time on that day, not wanting it to end. Meeting a friend… Yuuki had come to know Kuguri so much better since then. And he’s met a crush on that, after all. Dealing with his emotions the only way he knows how, Yuuki focuses on Kuguri’s items and pushing his feelings aside.

“Oh, that’s so cool,” Yuuki says, pointing to Kuguri’s matt grey pencil pouch. The pens and highlighters inside are all a different shade of grey and blue-blacks. Sitting down after putting a tray of soda and water down, Yuuki plays around with one such highlighter. 

“I like to keep things simple,” Kuguri smiles. Yuuki laughs, too, as he gets his cat pencil case and clear files out of his own bag. Kuroo had given him a sheet with memorization help and a couple of handwritten tips after practice. Kuguri reviews those too, saying Sakishima told him exactly the same. 

“Alright, let’s start,” Kuguri says, sitting closer to Yuuki. They share one side of the table. 

The distraction element of studying with Kuguri hadn’t crossed Yuuki’s mind before. But now he watches Kuguri’s mouth when he speaks, the way he licks his lips when they get dry, and drinks water right after. After asking permission, Kuguri writes and highlights in Yuuki’s notes and books. He underlines with a thin fineliner, and uses highlighters sparsely. He sometimes has to repeat what he says, but Yuuki makes sure it doesn’t happen too often. 

After a while, knowing a visitor is in the house, Yuuki’s black cat Selly enters the door. Meowing all the way, she clears off the table, and goes the way around to Kuguri. 

“Sel, hey! Don’t mess around,” Yuuki warns, eyeing the cat and Kuguri’s pen pouch. But his cat isn’t in a playful mood to mess with other people’s stuff. Instead, and maybe even worse, she jumps into Kuguri’s lap. Kuguri sits back as the cat turns on his thighs, before rolling into a black oval on top. He stares a couple of seconds, then puts his hand on top. As soon as he drops it on the head, Selly starts to purr, content at her new place.

Yuuki has never been so jealous of a cat before.

“Oh, uh… sorry about that. It’s not how she behaves usually,” Yuuki says, but Kuguri shakes his head.

“I really don’t mind. She’s warm and comfortable. If she starts scratching I might have to push her away tho,” Kuguri says, licking his lips, drinking his water. Yuuki looks away.

“Ah… ye-yeah…”

Not long afterwards, his mother interrupts them. 

“Dinner time! You boys go and sit at the table. Yuuki, please help with the plates? Your father will get Naoyasu-kun’s futon ready,” she smiles, and walks away.

“Oh, I didn’t know I was hungry,” Kuguri says when she’s gone, looking flabbergasted. His head then turns to Yuuki. “Spending time with you is really nice, so I guess I just didn’t notice it was evening already.”

“N-no, the pleasure is all mine, I MEAN! Not pleasure, you know, not the kind of—ehhhh, it’s just… I didn’t notice either! It’s—Ah, I hope my mom remembered my food request for you,” Yuuki stammers, knowing he’s blushing. He turns to the table and the papers, but cannot distract anyone with it. His mom asked him to help with setting the dinner table. Yuuki just hopes he won’t crash anything.

“Relax, and you know… Ah, nevermind.” Kuguri smiles, getting up first.

 

Yuuki is grateful that dinner was an easy affair. His parents focus on Kuguri, asking about his studies, how he got into volleyball (all stuff Yuuki knows already). Norio calls to say he won’t be home till later, and that Hotoka told him he’d eat out with friends. Yuuki’s glad, knowing that he and Kuguri won’t be disturbed then. His parents knew how Yuuki and he became friends. Because he has a friend over, Yuuki is freed of washing up duties. His father makes sure he knows the real reason is to study.

“Yuuki, we’ll make the bath ready at 8:30 p.m., okay? Naoyasu-kun, you should go first and let Yuuki,” Yuuki’s father says, making his son hide a blush and a groan. Kuguri laughs. As they return to Yuuki’s room, he explains how his parents are exactly the same.

“Anyway, revise. Or don’t. I didn’t prepare a quiz for tonight. However tomorrow, we definitely have to test how much you can remember,” Kuguri says, sitting down and helping clean the table somewhat. The room is smaller now as the futon next to Yuuki’s bed takes up floor space. Kuguri and he had been sitting close together already, but something catches Yuuki’s eye now…

 _Oh. Hell no,_ Yuuki’s eyes widen. Biting his lip, he gets up from the table, forgetting any sort of homework or reading. He feels Kuguri’s eyes following him, and so he turns to him.

“Ah, uh! D-did you see Selly anywhere?” The distraction helps; Kuguri looks around all of a sudden. Selly, Yuuki has already seen, was safely atop of his chair near the desk. She’s hidden in the shadows, hard to find. As Kuguri turns, saying that he hasn’t, Yuuki turns to his bed, kneeling down on Kuguri’s futon. You wouldn’t see it standing, but if Kuguri lies down and looks under Yuuki’s bed. If he’s too curious…

Not knowing where he should hide the magazines in a box, Yuuki’s hand comes to a standstill under the bed. Should he pull it out, hide it elsewhere? Maybe in the closet… or should he push it further to the wall? But then he might not be able to reach it… 

“Oh, is she under the bed?” Kuguri asks, his voice a lot closer than before. Yuuki panics. He pulls at the box, where innocent sport’s magazines hide Yuuki’s secrets. “Here, let me help.”

“No-no, it’s fine, I got it, AH!” Yuuki stumbles trying to get the box over the futon, and his worst nightmare comes to life; his fingers slip, the box comes free, the magazines tumble out. Opening pages, pictures of half-naked men fall on top of the futon. They’re ‘athlete’ types of erotic photoshoots; Some men are oiled, some having their private parts tastefully hidden by either nature or sport’s equipment. Norio had once bought an erotic magazine featuring a sport’s theme, and these cards had come for free. He had given it to Yuuki after he finished his entrance exam for Nekoma high school. 

And now, Yuuki wishes he could become one with the earth. Or hide behind a wall. Or make Kuguri forget he existed at all. Then he sees Kuguri’s eyes look at a card which back goes up, the edges well-crumpled. Yuuki knows that card by hard; it has the one volleyball player of the set. As he sees Kuguri reach for it, Yuuki’s hand shoots out. As if that’s the worst, the one that should be hidden the most. _He’ll think I’m a pervert! Or worse!_

He should have waited until Kuguri had gone into the bathroom. But Kuguri, longer arms, faster reflexes, has it already in his hand. His expression hasn’t changed, not from when most of the images were revealed, nor when he looks at a man in just knee-braces, holding a volleyball in front of his lap, while lying on top of a net.

“Well, damn.”

Yuuki tries to stand. There’s no hiding it, no explaining it. Kuguri stands up too, still holding the image, still looking at it. In fact, Yuuki wouldn’t mind if Kuguri doesn’t face him. He doesn’t want to see the look of total disgust… He steps back for a moment, unable to explain. Not knowing how he could even phrase anything anymore. He hears the brush of feet going over fabric, of his desk chair turning. Selly probably stretching or cleaning herself.

Then everything happens at once; Kuguri’s surprise, dead on his lips, a cat hissing. And Yuuki sees stars sees stars.

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

Yuuki remembers how Kuguri’s head came closer all of a sudden. How his eyes widened, mouth mid-word. The taller boy had taken a step forward, Yuuki unable to look up from his feet. Closing his eyes, Yuuki remembers wishing for some miracle. But then they fell. Air knocked out of Yuuki’s lungs, and Kuguri fell on top of him.

The next thing Yuuki knows, he lies on his back, completely unsure how he got into this position. His forehead hurts, and his lips…

His lips had touched Kuguri’s.

“Shit, I’m so sorry. I didn’t look down and your cat… She came between my legs,” Kuguri apologizes, making sure Selly’s fine. She is, sitting on the bed and watching them being clumsy. Yuuki murmurs a faint ouch. Then his favourite image drops on his chest. “I just…wanted to return this to you and uh, help clean up. Sorry, I’m sure it was my fault and I must have surprised you…”

Kuguri touches his forehead. Yuuki feels fine, embarrassed, his insides turn from being scared, but he’s fine. 

“I… I’ll bring ice for your head! Please sit down… Oh, Sel! Don’t even think of moving!” Yuuki tells his cat, running out of his room. When he returns with ice, Selly sits on Kuguri’s lap again, purring in happiness. Kuguri looks through the cards… he’s collected them all. Not knowing what Kuguri might think of him, Yuuki sits down on the bed, holding the small bag of ice wrapped in a tea towel to his head. He doesn’t want to apologize for who he is or what he likes… 

But he feels like he should offer Kuguri the chance to go back home. 

“You know, I had a feeling. Please don’t mind me asking, as I just want to confirm… but do you like guys, Shibayama-kun?” 

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

A lot has gone through Naoyasu’s mind. That he might have hurt Shibayama with the fall. That he’s a clumsy, blind idiot. How he held Shibayama in his arms as they fell, still bumping foreheads, noses, and mouths… how there hadn’t been anything between them. That he was an asshole, but how lucky he’d been to let go of the erotic image in his hand. It might have crumpled… 

Once Shibayama had gone out of the room, Naoyasu collected all the images in his hands. He needed to sit, and didn’t mind when the cat, having done what cats do and walking between his legs, sat down on him once more. Staring at the images, Naoyasu becomes painfully aware of the truth. _I’m not that muscular but… oh what the hell_. He should just ask Shibayama. Maybe he doesn't care about 'types', or it might just be something to stimulate fantasies. Naoyasu wouldn't have put it on Shibayama to have such things anyway, but it was a most welcome surprise. 

There _had_ been something between them. Chemistry, mutual likeness. And now Naoyasu had a real chance. He didn’t have to convince Shibayama to consider boys. He liked men. That much was sure. Now all he had to do was follow this red thread.

And pull.

Shibayama acts embarrassed, staring at Naoyasu’s hands. 

“I… I do. I’ve never… _been_ with one but… I just… I just have this—”

“Attraction? Yeah, I understand. I’m the same,” Naoyasu says, feeling the world lift off his shoulders. When in fact, its just Selly the cat jumping off him and walking out of the room. Shibayama stands there as if he’s seen a ghost. He closes the door behind him, then slowly sits next to Naoyasu.

“W… what?”

Naoyasu rubs his neck. “I guess we could have… talked about this sooner. But yeah, I’m into guys. Girls never interested me much. I kissed one, once. A girl, that is. Didn’t feel anything.”

“But when you think of boys… you do?” Shibayama asks, eyes wide and curious. Naoyasu nods, wanting to kiss Shibayama so badly. He sets aside the images. 

“You have a type?” Hoping to sound innocent and not jealous, Naoyasu slides the cards to an open, visible arc. Yuuki laughs.

“I uh, like athletes I guess! It’s not… I don’t actually have uh, a lot of experience…” Shibayama blushes, the cutest pink Naoyasu has ever witnessed. If he doesn’t fuck this up, this sleep-over could become a million times better. It had been an opportunity for sure, and he wanted to get to know Shibayama better, of course. But to know him intimately like this… 

He misses it when Yuuki continues speaking. An then can only stumble over his own stupidity.

“Oh, uh, what?”

“I—I asked if you… if you ever kissed a boy before?” Shibayama asks, his voice softer than before. More inward. 

“No, I haven’t.” Naoyasu doesn’t know why he feels like lying. It comes off so nonchalantly. He shouldn’t lie… but somehow, he believes saying the truth would hurt Shibayama’s feelings. Experience shouldn’t be embarrassing, and Naoyasu never had a boyfriend before to do… more than kisses with. “Have you?” 

Shibayama had said he hasn’t _been_ with anyone, but what that meant..? Shibayama shakes his head though, saying he hasn’t. Naoyasu licks his lips on instinct, wanting to know what Shibayama feels like. It’s now or never. Naoyasu feels the charge between them, a tension that hadn’t been there before. It’s not bad. He puts the ice away, drops it on the tray Shibayama left on the table.

“Would you like to try it, together?”

“Oh ah… Ooooh,” Shibayama stammers, blushing, moving his feet forward. Naoyasu sits to the side, putting one foot under the soft side of his knee, his leg down to the ground. Shibayama sits down in front of him, dipping the bed in the silent room. He looks down to Naoyasu hands. Talking himself into a confidence he doesn’t have, Naoyasu rubs his neck. “It’s just a kiss, anyway.”

_It’s just a kiss, just a kiss. Take it easy. Take it slow. Make him like it._

“Y-yeah… just. Just a kiss! Ehehe, heh,” Shibayama says, his eyes down. When he takes a single glance at Naoyasu, the latter’s heart beats faster. 

The first kiss is just to not scare him away. Naoyasu keeps his hands to himself when he leans forward into Shibayama’s space, gently planting his mouth aligning to Shibayama’s. He feels the sharp intake that Shibayama takes through his nose, and he might just hold his breath. But when Naoyasu’s lips touch his, he exhales it again—  
_just a kiss just a kiss just a kiss just a kiss just a Oh my god his lips are so soft_

—All the way they have eye contact. Shibayama might not know the etiquette of closing one’s eyes, or he’s not sure if he should. Shibayama is as red as a tomato. Naoyasu had his open to make sure he didn’t miss or fuck up. 

He retreats for a second, afraid Shibayama stopped breathing after all. Naoyasu doesn’t know how to proceed, if maybe he should offer some kind words. The kiss wasn’t bad. It wasn’t super exciting either.  
And yet they hang close together, suspended in time. Unbidden, Numai’s wise words run through his mind. There’s no reason to take it super slow but…

 _‘Use your hands, lower your eyes, look at his lips. Pull his chin down, go slow.’_ Naoyasu’s own desire comes through at last. That first touch was just a little test ride, to not scare Shibayama or have him dislike him. It was his first kiss after all, so maybe that’s why he hadn’t responded more. Naoyasu acted the innocent and inexperienced to make it easier for Shibayama. But now it was time to be serious about this.

All Naoyasu wants, is to make him smile. 

“Here, hold my hand,” Naoyasu says, his heart jumping in his throat. He lays the back of his hand flat on top of Shibayama’s thigh. Unsure fingers trail over the inside before they hold hands. Feeling light, Naoyasu experiences intense happiness when Shibayama’s other hands runs over his knee for support. Taking this as a good sign, Naoyasu’s own free hand reaches up to Shibayama’s chin, making him open his mouth. This time the eye contact is more sensual; half-hooded eyes, and Shibayama’s closing when Naoyasu’s nose brushes besides his.

Open lips meet, Naoyasu gently enclosing Shibayama’s bottom lip. It’s just like he imagined it’d be; sweet and soft, a hint of hesitation. Taking it the slowest he could possible go, Naoyasu’s fingers move to the side, to cup Shibayama’s jaw. There’s no pressure in his hand nor in his kiss, not when Shibayama’s nervous hands close around Naoyasu’s hand and knee. Naoyasu brings there foreheads together, his hair brushing Shibayama’s skin.

Then he angles the kiss, creating a wet sound between their mouths. Shibayama doesn’t back away from it. When Naoyasu makes the smallest incline back, Shibayama’s there to continue the kiss, as if he thought Nayasu could possible stop. They inch closer together without breaking apart, Naoyasu pushing his fingers through Shibayama’s, linking them. There’s a sound in the back of Naoyasu’s throat, low and satisfied, when he licks Shibayama’s bottom lip. He can feel Shibayama’s brow furrow against him. There’s the tip of Shibayama’s tongue, but it’s just a millisecond out of eternity.

Naoyasu knows it would be too much. And they could always try again. And again. _Later,_ Naoyasu warns himself.

When they back away, Shibayama’s eyes take forever to open. Naoyasu lets his hands drop to his own lap, waiting. His heart beats up his throat despite the calm demeanour he exceeds. When Shibayama opens his eyes, he looks anywhere else, still red. Naoyasu wants to try again, knowing there’s some power in the number 3.

It’s when Shibayama starts to stammer that Naoyasu considers waiting as the better option. 

“I eh, I should uhm, get drinks. Yeah! My throat is a bit dry,” Shibayama says, scratching the side of his jaw. Naoyasu knows how it fits into his palm now, wants to touch it again.

“Yeah, my throat is dry too. We can drink some water then try again, if you like?”

“T-try again, I uh,” Shibayama looks at him, still blushing. Naoyasu knows in his heart of hearts that he isn’t wrong about this. The feelings he has, the ones he feels he’s receiving… But he cannot be a 100% sure, not until Shibayama tells him so—

“S-s-s-s-ure we could try again, I guess! It’s uhm. I told you I wasn’t good and—”

“Everyone has to practice kissing to get better at it,” Naoyasu says, wanting to catch this opportunity and not make Shibayama feel bad. Watching him walk out of the room, Naoyasu settles back for a reflective moment. He bites his bottom lip, not knowing exactly what’s he chasing or worrying there. Only knowing he finally did it. 

He kissed Shibayama Yuuki. A small victory.

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

The glasses slip from his hands. Yuuki catches one before it crashes into the sink. The other he keeps tight against his chest. Heart beating loud in his throat, Yuuki glances towards his family sitting in the living room. No one heard his little gasp. Setting the glasses down on the counter, he opens the fridge. Putting his forehead against the door, he stares into nothing.

Dreaming about kissing Kuguri and kissing Kuguri had been two very different things. When Yuuki used to daydream about Kuguri’s face and how they would fit together, embraced in long kissing sessions, Yuuki has been excited. The thoughts made his stomach turn giddy, his cheeks warm, and his entire body buzzing with the mere idea of it.

Yet when the kisses actually happened, Yuuki had been scared sick. He couldn’t shake the feeling from his limbs as he went down the stairs, careful not to tumble. The hint of tongue sent his mind into overdrive. Yuuki had wanted nothing more than to use his own and taste Kuguri but… he backed away last second. Overthinking.

Overreacting.

 _I should have stayed upstairs…_ But his throat had been dry. Selecting peach juice from the fridge, he pours it into the two intact glasses. He’s not sure if the kiss was a success… Kuguri had mentioned he never kissed a guy before, but he’d been so gentle and nice about it. There must be some natural skill, which Yuuki lacks. Putting the glasses and a bowl of homemade cookies on the tray, Yuuki sighs out his doubts. He tries to breath in confidence, returning to his room. 

Kuguri doesn’t sit where Yuuki left him on the bed. He slid down back to the low table and their study session. He’s pouring his eyes over their combined notes, reflecting more on Yuuki’s than his own. He writes on a blank sheet of paper, underlines it, then moves on further down. He mentioned a test for tomorrow…

Yuuki thinks himself lucky. Kuguri was an incredible friend, an amazing teacher. At least he had the patience to sit with him here, to explain things over and over again. Yuuki’s ears catch fire, given that he’s brought the same level of niceness and skill into the kisses. Putting the tray down, Yuuki smiles at Kuguri, who nods in return. They end up not talking about what happened on the bed. Sitting on his right side, and a lot closer, Kuguri has a fire in him which warms Yuuki.

Another difference between dreams and reality, is that the flashes of thoughts brought an electrified feeling that passes with minutes gone by. Sitting here next to Kuguri has Yuuki a little tense. And Kuguri notices. But before he can open his mouth and say anything, there’s a knock on the door. Yuuki’s father, passing by, reminding his son about the bath time.

“Oh, right! Yeah, you should go first, Kuguri-kun,” Yuuki says, rubbing his shoulder without looking up from papers in front of him. He doesn’t actually read anything from them…

“Do we have to go separately? Going together would save time. And you’ve studied a lot today, so I’m sure we can revise afterwards,” Kuguri says, stretching his arms up and over his head. He doesn’t notice Yuuki’s shocked face. “And I don’t know about you, but I think I can study just an hour more.”

Yuuki makes a surprised ‘Oh’ sound, too small to be caught. He follows Kuguri out of the room and into the bathroom. Yuuki knows his father might check in on him but… he usually trusts Yuuki enough. 

The two boys slip into the bathroom, and out of their clothes. Yuuki makes sure to look anywhere but Kuguri. He even gets so far as to keep his eyes to the white tiles when he steps into the hot bath. Kuguri makes an appreciate humming sound as he sinks in himself. Putting his back to the wall, and his eyes straight forward into the room, Yuuki feels even smaller than normal, wishing he could be invisible.

“Oh damn, I wouldn’t have thought you’d be shy. Have you never taken baths with your club members before?” Kuguri asks, his legs a little outstretched towards Yuuki. His knees make it barely over the water that way. Yuuki sees as he takes the most minor glance.

“N-no, that’s not it. I have taken baths with the other first years before, and also in middle school during a trip to the onsen. It’s uhm, it’s nothing! I’m just, y’know!” Yuuki smiles at Kuguri, glad they both have warm cheeks from the warm water. “I’m… revising.”

Kuguri’s face stays neutral for a moment, then he shrinks together laughing. He holds a hand in front of his mouth, which does nothing to mute the acoustics in the tiled bathroom. Yuuki laughs too, nervous at first and despite himself, then happier. It was just a bath, Kuguri’s right. There was nothing extraordinary out of. Sure he likes Kuguri a big deal, and they had kissed… and Yuuki wants to confess now more than anything. 

“You really make me laugh sometimes, Shibayama. I really like you.”

Yuuki’s head bows down, looking at his distorted legs through the water. Kuguri is naked, hot, and wet, right next to him. It doesn’t affect Yuuki, whose defences go up like crazy. He should be a good friend, too. 

“I like you too, Kuguri-kun…”

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

“You guys have Wi-Fi right? Could you type in the password?” Kuguri holds his tablet out to Yuuki, who stays stunned in the doorway. While Kuguri had his towel casually around his shoulders, Yuuki was busy drying his hair.

“Uh, sure,” Yuuki says, kneeling on Kuguri’s futon as he takes the tablet. 

“We— and I mean you —have studied enough. I wanted to watch this movie with you, and it’s best to watch it at night,” Kuguri smiles, not caring that’s its almost 9:30. Even on Saturdays, Yuuki isn’t supposed to stay up late. His parents made this a rule for his first year at high school. They didn’t like the mentality of little sleep and all studying, and made Yuuki promise not to make it too late at the beginning of the school year. It also helped with a healthy sleep rhythm

Only Kuguri could have had Yuuki blow all that in the wind. Leaving their notes and books for what they are, they wait until their hairs have dried off. Yuuki’s mother has brought new, but healthy snacks and refreshments as they’d gone to the bathroom. After consuming the fruits and the fresh tea from a pot, they turn off the lights. Kuguri’s tablet and his phone shine enough to make Yuuki be able to find his way to his bed.

“Hey, come here. It’s a scary movie,” Kuguri laughs, sitting up at the futon. He has Yuuki’s and his own pillow propped against the side of the frame. Yuuki’s glad for the darkness; he blushes all the way as he sits next to Kuguri. The latter puts the tablet on his legs, the site where he wants to watch the movie already open and ready to go. 

“Is it super scary..?” Yuuki asks, hating to sound like a chicken. Kuguri just hums.

“Not nightmarish so… I wouldn’t want to watch it alone at night though, to be honest.”

“Okay,” Yuuki says, definitely not feeling okay. He cosies up next to Kuguri on instinct as the movie starts. When he notices and tries to pull away, Kuguri puts his arm around his shoulder.

“This is fine, right?” Kuguri asks, his voice low. Yuuki nods, sure that the tablet light catches it. The screen turns blood red, and the scary background starts to play. 

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

Naoyasu breathes heavy through his nose when the beginning of the music pitches. He’s done it. He’s actually had the guts to pull through. Kissing Shibayama, taking a bath together, confessing that he likes him. Now having sitting here and watching a movie together. They sit like boyfriends, super close. There’s little doubt in Naoyasu’s mind anymore.

They’re dating. Shibayama invited him here for a reason other than studying. Maybe that wasn’t exactly a date, but Naoyasu could count it as one. A half date. Watching a movie together like this definitely counted as a date… or he should ask Shibayama out tomorrow. That was even a better idea…

Concentrating on the movie, Naoyasu eases up; it’s not as scary as he thought it would be, after watching the trailer. Yuuki is too cute though; some of the jumpscares get to him. The reactions get to Naoyasu, in a different way. He holds him close throughout the movie, liking the way Shibayama’s head sinks near his shoulder, how they fit together as if made for each other. 

Naoyasu’s heart beats like crazy. 

He probably should ask Shibayama if they’re boyfriends now but… before the movie ends, Shibayama has fallen asleep against him. Smiling softly, Naoyasu puts the tablet away. He takes the sleeping boy up bridal style, and settles him on his bed, under the covers. Once he’s sure Shibayama can stay like this, Naoyasu lies down on his futon. Falling asleep is a hard thing to do, and it’s past midnight before his eyes can close.

*

 

*

 

*

 

“Time for a change,” Kuguri says. Yuuki looks up from where he was copying a quote from his book. He blinks, looking around himself. His family has gone out for the day, paying close by relatives a visit. Yuuki has been excused given school having priority.

Breakfast had been a noisy affair. Yuuki’s brothers had both been home for it. Giving Yuuki grieve for having a friend over, they pelted Kuguri with questions. Gentle soul that he was, he answered them diligently. But Yuuki had been glad when his mother asked him to clean the table, as they would go out and leave them to it.

Kuguri had brought all their scattered books, papers and stationary from yesterday night downstairs. They hadn’t been studying for more than 30 minutes when Kuguri drops his pencil. Yuuki blinks, not sure what Kuguri was planning. There was a trend of his friend bringing him away from responsibilities. Yuuki likes it, even if worry spreads in his chest.

“What kind of change?”

“Surroundings. You’ve been studying inside this house for so long… and we haven’t moved around a lot. Is there a park or some other green space nearby?”

“Uh, yeah, there’s one. It has trees for shade and all sorts of seating areas.” Yuuki is already calculating the route, what’s in the fridge that they could bring for snacks. Kuguri doesn’t waste another moment. 

“Let’s go there then. I’ll get our bags. Do you need anything else from your room?”

“Uh, no. Just—Could you make sure my house keys are in the inside pocket of my bag?”

“Keys, inside pocket, got it,” Kuguri smiles. He leaves the collecting papers to Yuuki, who likes this kind of working together a lot. He smiles to himself as he puts Kuguri’s books and notes on a neat pile. Kuguri returns not long after. He jangles Yuuki’s keys before putting them back. Yuuki picks a couple of apples from the counter, saying they don’t have any drinks…

“Vending machines along the way. My treat,” Kuguri says, smiling a hell of a lot more. Yuuki cannot remember what sparked this… but it’s good to see Kuguri happy.

Having no recollection of how and when he’s falling asleep, Yuuki had an incredible rest that night. He remembers warmth, and not being afraid even as the movie got weird. Heading out, they find a vending machine halfway to the park. As Kuguri promised, he pays for four of them, before they continue. They talk about the movie and what Yuuki has missed, as the latter wouldn’t watch the ending by himself.

 

*

 

There’s families in the park. The largest amount of them surrounded the play area. Kuguri and Yuuki find a bench under the shade of a large tree. Kuguri looks at the hiragana, separated by a heart.

“Cozy place huh,” he says, setting down his bag and lifting a single paper and a pen out. Yuuki cannot remark on the lover’s confession of one person whose name begins with ‘Ha’, and the other’s being ‘O’. Not when Kuguri hands him the items. 

“What’s this?” Yuuki asks, already seeing the Q’s and A’s. It’s the sheet Kuguri started preparing for him yesterday. The test. Putting a notebook on his legs and the paper on top, Yuuki gets to it. Kuguri sits back at first, then comes closer. He reads over Yuuki’s shoulder, which is distracting and kind of annoying… but Yuuki cannot fault him too much. He’s just trying to help.

“Ah, right answer. Very nice,” Kuguri says, and as soon as Yuuki looks up, lips brush the top of his cheek, near the side of his eye. “I had an idea. For every right answer, you’ll get a kiss. And they’ll be different the more answers you get right.”

The pencil slips in Yuuki’s suddenly all too warm hands. The paper sticks to the side of his hand. His neck becomes warm, while Kuguri smiles sweetly, leaning back on the bench. Yuuki reads over the second question three times, before he remembers what words came first. Reading takes a whole lot longer. Giving Kuguri a nervous smile, Yuuki tries answering the second question. While getting it right would mean he can have more confidence in upcoming school tests, and because he has educational pride… he doesn’t know if he’s ready to face Kuguri’s rewards.

He gets the second answer right. Kuguri’s hand travels over his shoulders to the other side, touching Yuuki’s ear. Slowly following the movement, Yuuki’s head turns to that side. As soon as he does, Kuguri’s lips touch upon his neck. A hot whisper trails over his skin, as Kuguri’s hand drops to his shoulder.

“Right answer, but you missed an component.”

The test continues in such a fashion. Yuuki’s brain becomes overheated; Kuguri’s lips touch his temple, aiding him what he missed in the third question; he kisses Yuuki’s nose, saying he was very close on the fourth. Yuuki’s ability to read and think become thwarted by the attentions. He cannot think how and why Kuguri would do this, in the park, _when they’re friends_. They’re just friends… who kissed yesterday. And took a bath together. Watched a movie sitting close, and Yuuki fell asleep on him.

They’re just friends. And Kuguri kisses him on the mouth when he gets the 5th answer completely right. 

“That’s it. Just make sure to write as much as you can remember. You’ll have the time, I’m sure.”

The air becomes more breathable when Yuuki finishes his test of 6 questions. Kuguri kisses his forehead, saying ‘well done’, before giving him more space on the bench. 

“Are you okay? Was it too much?” Kuguri asks, and Yuuki makes sure not to speak in stammers; his throat is drier than ever, his skin on fire wherever Kuguri’s lips have been. They had wanted to try out kissing again… when Yuuki became an idiotic, afraid fool and they went back to studying instead. Maybe this was Kuguri’s way of making intimacy between guys easier for him? It was working… somewhat. Yuuki did feel more relaxed than yesterday, less… tense. The kisses had been sweet and fleeting. Apart from the neck one, he didn’t feel like his stomach would twist and turn for the next hour.

“N—no! It was fine… it really was. Uh, thanks,” Yuuki says, trying hard not to scratch his neck. 

“I’m sure you’ll go to that training camp, Shibayama. You do well with revising and just needed a bit of help. Don’t worry too much,” Kuguri says, sitting back fully on the bench. His hands put together on his lap, he looks out of the park. “And… thank you for inviting me. Do you want to go back?”

There is something nagging in the back of Yuuki’s mind. He needed to do it today, but he couldn’t remember what it was. Kuguri has left a mark on him, and it’s all that comes to mind.

“Sure, we got out here after all,” Yuuki says, and accepts the bottled drink Kuguri hands to him. 

Yuuki wants to come here, alone. To carve in his and Kuguri’s hiragana, below the bench. Even though he’s not a punk and doesn’t like vandalism. He doesn’t know where this irrational thought which he never had before comes from. Kuguri might just bring out a new side in him. 

 

*

 

At home, they take a nap. Yuuki couldn’t say no to it, not when Kuguri seems so sleepy, his eyes daring to shut down mid-read. 

 

Kuguri has a shirt on, same as Yuuki. Before Yuuki can mention bringing out the futon, which his parents had put away once more, Kuguri falls on Yuuki’s bed. 

“Come here,” Kuguri says, his smile inviting, his arm outstretched to beckon Yuuki to him. Blushing, Yuuki settles beside him; they lie on their sides, facing each other. Kuguri, being the taller one, makes Yuuki use his underarm as a pillow. Laughing not to worry, Kuguri settles his his head on the pillow, his chin touching upon Yuuki’s crown. 

When Yuuki stops thinking and sleep claims him, he hears Kuguri moving. A cover settles over his body, and Kuguri presses it close to his shoulders. Then, Kuguri’s other arm lies on top. It smells like Kuguri; and it has sleeves. Yuuki wonders if it is his jersey… His Nekoma one.

_But I gave it to mom to wash and hang dry… because Sunday… today…. There was something…_

Unable to remember what it is he’s forgetting, Yuuki falls asleep.

 

*

 

Volleyball. It’s volleyball. Yuuki wakes up to it, as it drills into the back of his head. Only once he’s been hit by a volleyball in the back of his head. A court next to him was doing jump serves, and one had gone awry. Right into his head. It didn’t knock him off his feet, but it had throbbed and hurt like hell. That’s what he was feeling now, coming from out of his sleepy dream-state.

And into horror.

“Shit!” Yuuki exclaims, jumping up, “Shit, oh no!” He says once more, pushing aside Kuguri’s arm and jacket he only registers as an object in the way. Kuguri wakes up slowly, his eyes squinting. 

“What…” he says without moving, and Yuuki jumps over him, still cursing. He makes a turn on his heels when he doesn’t find his bag right away. Kuguri had put it next to the door, as Yuuki hadn’t finished his second drink on the way home. Making a near dive next to it, Yuuki fishes out his phone, his string of ‘shit’ becoming whispered hisses.

“Shibayama, what’s the matter..?” Kuguri sits up on the bed. “C’mere, it’s fine.”

But Yuuki cannot trust those treacherous arms, that lovely warmth. The phone rings, he saw the missed calls and text messages. All those butterfly kisses had him forget about—

“Kai-san!? Kai-san _I am so sorry_! I had… I was studying last night and it got late so I… I overslept and—I’m so sorry, I don’t know if I can make it…” Yuuki came to stand up again, his stomach non-existent, but he feels sick. He’s never skipped club activities. Only once he was almost late, and that was mostly Lev’s fault. He hears Kai relate the message to the team, before he returns to the call.

 _”You were up late studying? Ah I remember… you had a couple of subjects… Yes yes, I see how it is,”_ Kai says, sounding just as nice as ever.

Kuguri stands up from the bed. His arms loop around Yuuki, he feels less anxious now. That mouth— which has become more and more familiar to him over the weekend —descends into his hair. 

“Do you want me to leave?” Kuguri asks, and Yuuki sways against him. Offering comfort in form of putting his hand over Kuguri’s, Yuuki puts the phone to his side to mute what he’ll say next.

“No… no it’s to late for me to go anyway… I think.” This wasn’t Kuguri’s fault. Yuuki had forgotten something important all on his own. He puts the phone against his ear again, ready to face the music. The scolding, The disappointment… But it’s not Kai talking to him.

 _”—is important, but not that much that you should lose sleep over it. Trust me. Just put in the work a couple of hours throughout the day, and go to bed at a descent time. You’re not dumb, Shibayama, and the tests… they’re gonna be a breeze for you. Don’t worry about missing this training match. There’s a second one scheduled after. Make it in time for warm up, an we’ll see you then.”_ Kuroo’s voice has never been this understanding, at least not to Yuuki’s memory. Kuroo was a kind person when he explains things, but he could also lose patience and let people figure out on their own. 

Yuuki finds himself nodding and agreeing, saying yes to it all and humming he’ll be there. He hates missing out on a training match against another school… Him playing in the second match might not be a given after missing out on this one and having Yaku play throughout. They cannot just switch him in when he’s not present at the time.

Kuroo hands the phone back to Kai. 

_”Also, what Kuroo forgot to mention; we understand if you’re trying your hardest to be present at the training camp. No one faults you for that. Just take care of yourself, Shibayama-kun. That’s the most important.”_

The panic disappears from his chest, and Shibayama can breathe again. He’s not in trouble…

“Ah, that’s good,” Kuguri answers, as Yuuki relayed that last thought out loud in a sighing tone. 

He’s not in trouble with Nekoma. But how to feel about Kuguri being extra caring and attentive… Yuuki just doesn’t know what to make of it. 

 

*

 

*

 

*

 

Given that the mood has flunked after the phonecall, Naoyasu offers that he’ll go home. They could always talk on the phone that night.

“I’ll ask questions, and you’ll answer without peeking into your books,” Naoyasu says, making Shibayama flustered as he indicates Shibayama would cheat. “I know, I know. Anyway, don’t beat yourself up over missing a match too much. I understand that being with you team is important, but in the end, we’re just bench players. And you said that your libero is incredibly good and never has been sick so…” 

It doesn’t help much. Naoyasu wonders if he should just shut up about it. Nothing he says or does would lift Shibayama’s mood. He still wants to kiss him though. They never got back to practicing, as other things have taken priority. 

Even so, Shibayama decided to bring Naoyasu to the closest station where he could join a network that would lead him home. If he’d be super mad with Naoyasu, he wouldn’t do that. Thinking that their chances of becoming an ‘official’ couple, as Hiroo would call it, aren’t near danger, there’s just one minor detail on Naoyasu’s mind.

“Say, that senpai of yours… Kai-san. What kind of guy is he?” Naoyasu asks, sure of himself that the questions comes from a place of curiosity. In wanting to get to know Shibayama’s team better. Not to do reconnaissance in the event Nohebi would play them. Shibayama has talked about the team in general, mentioning a few individuals like Lev (definitely not a thread) and Yaku. 

He’s not jealous. Not in the least. If Shibayama would like any of them, he would have said so before kissing Naoyasu. They wouldn’t have kissed in the first place, Naoyasu bets.

“Oh, Kai-senpai is very kind! He never seems agitated and radiates… well composure. He always takes his time to explain things and doesn’t fault you if you get it wrong… I’m glad he’s the one who called and texted me. Kuroo-san was nice too, but if he’d been the one calling after me, I’d feel in more trouble,” Shibayama says, eyes doubtful to the skies. Naoyasu does everything to bring the memory of what Shibayama’s lips feel like against his to mind. He doesn’t want to feel anything else. 

Not the doubt in his own heart. He’s put his Nohebi jersey over Shibayama when they took a nap, and hid it fast before going to Shibayama to give him comfort. One of these days, he should just tell Shibayama that he’s from Nohebi. It shouldn’t be a big of a deal in the first place…

They walk up the steps, Shibayama back to his usual happy, chatty self. When they get to the platform, Naoyasu looks around himself. It shouldn’t be a big of a deal, but he gently pushes an unknowing Shibayama behind one side of a vending machine. 

“Kuguru…-kun..?” Shibayama asks as his back touches the wall behind him, when Naoyasu takes his hands. Smiling he descends down towards the sweetest lips, pressing a gentle, unassuming, less wanton kiss on top.

“I wish I could come and watch you play but… I don’t want to pressure you or have you feel bad if you’re just on the bench so… Do you best, ne?” Naoyasu says, feeling smooth. He keeps it at lips brushing lips, enjoying the small whimpering sound Shibayama makes anyway. 

“I’ll miss you,” he says, knowing that he shouldn’t lament the ending of a most successful weekend.

Shibayama looks stunned, but doesn’t leave him hanging. “I… I will miss you too! T-thank you for… for everything.” 

Feeling the warmth of a hundred suns bloat his chest, Naoyasu plays with the strap of his bag. Tightening his hands around it, he turns to watch the train arrive. It’s just 15 minutes of sitting, and he’s back in his own district. A short walk, and he’s back home. Half the world away from this place where he doesn’t want to leave. 

He steps in the train even so, waving to Shibayama.

There’s nothing to be sad about. The weekend was so much more than he’d hoped for. Maybe on the next date, Naoyasu can kiss the rest of Shibayama’s insecurities away.

That is, once he has his own insecurities under control. It wasn't until Naoyasu returns home and goes into his room that a weird feeling gnaws at him. The more he thinks about it, the more Naoyasu’s confidence crumbles. He’s read this scenario before… 

Throwing his legs over his bedside and getting up from it, Naoyasu makes a beeline to his desk. He locates a small key from between a Chinese poetry book, then kneels in front of the desk’s left side. He opens the second to last drawer, pulling out random notes that didn’t matter. They were just a distraction, a veil. Using the small key, he opens up a mechanism inside the drawer; a second layer opens up to him. Putting the thin piece of board aside, he finds a specific visual novel.

He flips through it. Short stories of male love, centered on love triangles. Person A liking person B, person B in love with C, and C of course, having the hots for A. Friendships, both new and childhood-strong alike. Sitting down, Naoyasu nibbles on his fingers as he slowly flips through the pages with a single thumb.

And there Naoyasu finds it. A horrid pain spreads through him. One of the guys in this one shot story made out with a new work relation, who was also gay. They kissed but, this guy only did it for practice; to be able to please his best friend from childhood. Naoyasu feels a cliff open up between his lungs. 

What if he got it all wrong. What if this ‘Kai’ meant more to Shibayama than he let on? Naoyasu doesn’t want to believe someone as sweet and mostly innocent as Shibayama would do…use him.

He should have kissed him deeper. Making sure he’d fall in love with him over the weekend. _Speak_ about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was @selpuku’s suggestion to have Kuguri think that they’re dating and Yuuki having no clue 8’D I love ‘friends kiss but also have feelings for each other’ tropes as well as very cute misunderstandings. So for me, the way I’d realized that one person would think they’re dating and the other not knowing they are, would be through dates and kisses www
> 
> I was pretty generic about the horror movie (ive watched so many but couldn’t be bothered to hint at one w) and the hiraganas don’t mean anything either~
> 
> I'm sosososoo looking forward to present the next chapter ;v; I cannot vow if I'm fast or not.. but I'm not the kind of person to abandon fics c:
> 
> Btw the lil drama I'm introducing at the end is just because I have some Nohebi senpai interaction planned C:!!


End file.
